Category Archives: The View from Harbor Street

Bay News, The View from Harbor Street

All In A Good Day’s Work

David Buckingham New MUGA View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham

While your City government staff is certainly not perfect, we have great employees doing great work.
Some of that work is easy to see being performed, some less so. One of the joys of leading this great team is witnessing the wonderful stories of amazing personal attention and dedication involving your City staff. Here are a few examples from the past couple weeks:
“Finding Bobby.” Your summer lifeguards make our beaches safer for residents and visitors. While those young men and women are normally focused on the water, their dedication goes far beyond water safety. Continue reading All In A Good Day’s Work →

Bay News, Business Matters, The View from Harbor Street

Caring for People, Environment & Neighborhoods

David Buckingham New MUGA View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham

From helping low-income utility customers, to announcing new water conservation measures, and adopting updated residential design guidelines, the City Council took important action last week to care for our residents, improve environmental stewardship, and better define our regulations for property owners and developers. Here’s a summary of a few items of import to many of our residents:
Utility Discount Program
The Council approved a water and sewer rate discount for our most financially challenged residents, providing an opportunity for perhaps one-fifth of our ratepayers to see up to a 10 percent reduction in their monthly utility bills. Morro Bay will use water and sewer fund penalty fees, non-sufficient check charges and Continue reading Caring for People, Environment & Neighborhoods →

Bay News, The View from Harbor Street

Looking At A Busy Year Ahead

David Buckingham New MUGA View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham

What a great Fourth of July in Morro Bay! It was wonderful to see more than 750 residents, guests and visitors at the ribbon cutting for our new bridge and start of the bike parade.
The new Morro Creek Bridge represents a bridge to our future in some ways, so I thought I’d use this column to provide the community a quick update on a bunch of the objectives our City Council has set for this year.
Public Works: We will award the facilities master plan contract for our new Water Reclamation Facility next week. We are now moving decisively forward toward construction of a regional facility operated by the City of Morro Bay that will clean our wastewater and recover the 1 million gallons of treated water we dump into the ocean.   Continue reading Looking At A Busy Year Ahead →

Bay News, The View from Harbor Street

Parking, Recreation and Smart Water Meters

David Buckingham New MUGA View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham

Summer is here! And with it, tremendous opportunities, challenges, and decisions for each of us individually and for the City of Morro Bay collectively.
From parking to recreation to water meters, we are looking forward to your thoughts and concerns.
Parking
City staff continues to keep a close eye on parking especially in the Downtown Business District. To that end, we conducted another fairly scientific assessment on June 5, a sunny pre-summer Friday in Morro Bay.   Continue reading Parking, Recreation and Smart Water Meters →

Bay News, The View from Harbor Street

Fourth of July, the Budget, and Citizen Surveys

David Buckingham New MUGA View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham

Summer is starting in Morro Bay! From the 2015 4th of July Celebration, to the general plan update and the 2015/16 City budget, here’s some notes on a few important community items:
4th of July! Start planning now for the 2015 4th of July Family Fun Day in • Morro Bay. As publicized already, the committee that has run “Morro Bay 4th” for many years has  “retired.” The City is planning the 2015 event — a resident-focused, family-friendly, daytime event at Tidelands Park.
The old favorites are all on tap: Morro Bay Mile Skateboard Race (10 a.m.); Red, White and Blue Bike Parade (noon); and 5 hours of bands, games, children’s activities and fun from noon to 5 p.m. at Tidelands Park.   Continue reading Fourth of July, the Budget, and Citizen Surveys →

Bay News, The View from Harbor Street

Improving Our Service

David Buckingham New MUGA View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham

Your City Staff is here to serve you. Whether working on the streets and parks, providing great sports leagues for our kids, assisting with building permits, processing business licenses, providing medical assistance, keeping neighborhoods and businesses safe through community policing, or providing safe harbor for our commercial fishing fleet – we exist to serve.
While our residents can  — and should — communicate directly with the City Council, your staff welcomes the opportunity to connect directly with you. Have a question, a comment or a complaint about City services? Consider starting with the staff member who can most quickly and efficiently improve our service. Either contact a department head below or use our full staff directory at: Continue reading Improving Our Service →

Bay News, Business Matters, The View from Harbor Street

Help Needed with General Plan Update

David Buckingham New MUGA View From Harbor Street 
By David Buckingham

Morro Bay has a bright future. The City has a tremendous amount of potential opportunities such as preserving our amazing environment for all to enjoy, ensuring our neighborhoods have wonderful character, revitalizing our downtown business district to provide additional shopping and services, and wisely redeveloping spaces such as the existing waste water treatment plant and the Morro Bay Power Plant.
The City’s General Plan and Local Coastal Program (LCP) revision is starting now. The letter below, signed by all five current City Council members, is both informative and an invitation. The letter explains more about the GP/LCP process, and invites you, our residents, to take an active part in this process by serving on the “General Plan Advisory Committee.” Continue reading Help Needed with General Plan Update →

Bay News, The View from Harbor Street

Code Enforcement is Good for Everyone

David Buckingham New MUGA View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham

Morro Bay does not have an effective, proactive approach to ensure residents, visitors and businesses follow the civil aspects of our municipal code.
When speaking of “code enforcement” in this context, we are not talking about our police officers enforcing the criminal aspects of City, State or Federal law. We are talking about the City enforcing the softer parts of our municipal ordinances for the betterment of the entire community.
Do we have a code enforcement problem? Judging from the many complaints we receive about various violations, and considering some of the commonalities of well-managed, well-working communities, we should seriously consider a more consistent and more effective approach to code compliance.   Continue reading Code Enforcement is Good for Everyone →

Bay News, The View from Harbor Street

Budget Forecast Set for March 31

Morro Bay City SealThe View From Harbor Street
By David Buckingham

Over the next several years, volatile revenues, spending needs, mounting debts, and inadequate infrastructures present significant hurdles for cities throughout California.
Even worse, some California citizens may not be aware of those dilemmas due to low levels of transparency, public disclosure, and civic engagement.
David BuckinghamThe City of Morro Bay has embraced the fundamental need for change, and to be an example of a city that provides clear and accurate information to its citizens through full transparency, civic engagement, and public disclosure of important issues.
One source says: “the goal of community sustainability is to establish local economies that are economically viable, environmentally sound and socially responsible.”   Continue reading Budget Forecast Set for March 31 →

Bay News, The View from Harbor Street

Water, Sewer Rates Must Rise The View From Harbor Street

David BuckinghamBy David Buckingham

As we stated in this space in the Jan. 22 edition of The Bay News, “We must raise water rates or risk losing our state water supply.” In asking for your input on this discussion, we also noted that sewer rates must increase as well.
We recently concluded a professional water rate study, and while rates must not increase quite as badly as we feared they might have to, the planned hikes are still very significant.
Why are rates going up? I’d encourage you to review the more detailed discussion in our Jan. 22 column. For now though, here are the basic issues: 1) Water rates have not increased since 1995, and, 2) we must replace our 62-year old sewer plant. (The sewer plant was originally constructed in 1953 and last upgraded in 1983.) Here’s a key fact — adjusted for inflation, water charges iMorro Bay City Sealn Morro Bay have dropped 36% over the last 20 years.
The accompanying graph shows both the problem and the needed solution. The flat blue line shows water rates, with zero increase, for a typical family over the past 20 years. The red line shows how rates would have increased gradually, if we had raised them based on the 2.5-percent average inflation rate and the 1% annual increased cost of water due to drought, regulation, and increases in operating expenses. The sharp blue increase shows the painful rate hike we must implement over the next five years to make up for our failure to raise rates gradually over the past two decades. Continue reading Water, Sewer Rates Must Rise The View From Harbor Street →