AUTUMN HARVEST FESTIVAL IN MIKI JAPAN

In November 2016, I had the privilege of leading a delegation of eleven Visalia citizens on a visit to our sister-city, Miki, Japan.  We were hosted for a week by their city officials and local families, invited into their homes to see the daily routine of Japanese life, were entertained at banquets, attended and spoke at their Hardware Festival, and were given a tour of Himeji Castle and city hall.  We celebrated the 50^th anniversary of our sister-city relationship and made new friends.

In April 2017, Miki sent a delegation of 14 people to Visalia where we returned their kindnesses and hospitality.  Their vice-mayor and city officials in that group assisted us in dedicating our new Miki Sister-City Park on Mineral King Avenue, we hosted them in our homes, and gave them tours of our area.

We have now been invited again to visit Miki, Japan, to help them celebrate their autumn harvest festival, October 3-9, 2018.  There will be some limited home-stay opportunities, and included in the itinerary is a visit to Kyoto and Nara, nearby ancient capitals of Japan.  We will fly from Los Angeles into Osaka, where we will be greeted and bussed to Miki for this visit.  My wife and I will be attending, along with other Visalia city officials.  There are a few spaces open for interested citizens of Visalia who would like to accompany our delegation, on a first-come, first-served basis.  All of those traveling to Japan in our group will be responsible for paying their own airfare and incidentals.

If you are interested in being part of Visalia's delegation for this visit to our sister-city in Japan, please contact Gladys Ruiz at the city, 713-4314 or gladys.ruiz@visalia.city.  We look forward to renewing acquaintances and celebrating our sister-city relationship with Miki, Japan, and promise to report back.

VALLEY CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

In June, City Manager Randy Groom and I had the opportunity to visit the Eagle Oaks Specialty Care Center of Valley Children's Medical Group in Bakersfield.  This center is nearing completion and will soon be servicing the needs of children in Kern County.  Valley Children's is expanding throughout the valley, with centers such as the new one in Bakersfield, and one soon to be built in Visalia at the corner of Highway 99 and Caldwell.  While the Visalia center is still in the planning stages, current indications are that it will be similar in size and design to the 52,000 square foot state-of-the-art medical center in Bakersfield.  In 2017, 4,000 children from Tulare County, with 18,000 visits, were served by Valley Children’s.  If the eventual design of Visalia's center is anything like that in Bakersfield, this building will be an inviting "welcome" to the newly designed southern entrance into Visalia off of Highway 99 along the four-lane Caldwell Avenue currently under construction.

UPS EXPANSION

UPS has purchased 58 acres in Visalia's industrial park on the corner of Plaza and Riggin Avenue.  I recently attended a meeting with UPS and several of their key partners, along with Visalia’s city manager and our development director.  While much of what was discussed at this meeting is not public information yet and was merely an opportunity to share information and get feedback, I can say that this will be an impressive project.  UPS is planning a building in excess of 400,000 square feet.  It is anticipated that they will go through the permitting process from October through December 2018 with construction to begin in 2019/2020.  This UPS expansion will be something that Visalia can be proud of, will provide additional local jobs, and will attract other businesses to the industrial park as well.

If you have questions or topics regarding the city which you would like to have addressed in future articles, please email Warren at warren.gubler@visalia.city.  For past articles, visit directfromwarren.blogspot.com.

VISALIA IS NOT L.A.!

We recently attended a family reunion in Southern California.  While there, I visited with a shirt-tail relative, Kayla, who described for me her job working for Los Angeles’ Staples Center as an "event coordinator."  Her job description includes booking events at that venue.  Since there are four professional sports teams that share the use of the building, she says it's almost impossible for outside groups to book the building itself.  Instead, most of her bookings are for the plaza area in front of the Staples Center.  The cost of the bookings start at $15,000.00 per event.  She described for me how when local companies want to host clients or conferences, they are looking for large venues where as many as 15,000 to 20,000 people can come.  Because of its nice climate, Los Angeles is a destination for such conferences, and has a great reputation for hosting parties.

Of course I had to take the opportunity to tell Kayla about Visalia and our convention center and how it books events.  I indicated to her that we appeal to a different market niche, usually smaller groups of up to a few thousand that are looking for a central location in California, easy access, drivability, and cost savings.  Such groups appreciate our traditional small town values and friendly atmosphere.

I recently read an article by The Most Rev. Michael C. Barber, SJ in "The Catholic Voice", an online publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland.  Much of his article was devoted to the Region V Encuentro (Meeting) attended by all the bishops of California, Nevada and Hawaii, together with 1,200 delegates, held at the Visalia Convention Center in April.  He wrote that Oakland sent about 100 excited, energized and competent pastoral leaders to this conference.  Let me share with you some of his comments from that article.  Reverend Barber indicated that he had never previously been to Visalia, which is about 45 minutes south of Fresno on Highway 99.  The only time he had been to Fresno was to drive through it on his way to and from Los Angeles.  He admitted to initially being annoyed that he had to drive four hours each way for this Visalia meeting.  He kept thinking "Why couldn't we be meeting in Santa Barbara or Carmel or a beach hotel in Coronado?"  However, "Visalia is different.  It is the oldest town in the Central Valley, and for many years was the only town between Los Angeles and the gold rush camps near Sacramento.  Visalia is the type of classy, small American town where everyone you meet – in the stores, cafes, hotels, gas stations, EVEN WALMART – talks to you like an old friend and wants to help you.  The young bartender-dude at the Marriott told me his life story – and that he plays the guitar on Sunday morning at the local Methodist Church.  So refreshing.  Visalia was chosen as the locus for our statewide Encuentro because it is almost in the middle of the state between San Francisco and L.A.  It was held at the local convention center.  The Masses were beautiful and the small group discussions energizing."  Rev. Barber went on to comment about the city's agricultural setting.  "People who work the land seem to be not only close to the land, but to each other – and to God.  More than a few times while driving I passed large orchards where the owners had posted huge signs "PRAY FOR RAIN".  So I turned off the car radio and said a rosary for rain to help the farmers."  On Saturday afternoon of the Encuentro, he walked the six blocks to the local Catholic parish, St. Mary's, to go to Confession.  He noted that the priest was so kind, and that he felt so good attending.  "But what I will take home with me is the impression I had on walking into the church; utter astonishment, awe and wonder.  Here, ‘in the middle of nowhere' (God forgive me) was one of the most beautiful Catholic Church interiors I had ever seen.  Next time you are driving to Los Angeles or going to Sequoia National Park, stop off Highway 99 and see this wonder.  Thank you St. Mary's.  Thank you Visalia.”

Like Reverend Barber, people are usually impressed once they actually visit our thriving city.  We don't pretend to be Los Angeles or San Francisco, and our convention center is nowhere near the size of the Staples Center or its adjoining convention center.  But it's good to be different.  New residents and visitors will continue to be attracted to our area by the uniqueness of what we have to offer. We appreciate Reverend Barber’s kind comments about our community and for sharing the good word!

If you have questions or topics regarding the city which you would like to have addressed in future articles, please email Warren at warren.gubler@visalia.city.  For past articles, visit directfromwarren.blogspot.com.

                                                                                    Mayor Warren Gubler

CITIZEN INPUT

The Visalia City Council makes a lot of routine decisions on behalf of our community.  On occasion, however, an individual or neighborhood in the city gets involved.  We try to balance their input with staff reports and our own research.  Similar to a judge in court, we try to render our final decision based upon the facts and merits, not upon which side has the most in attendance at a council meeting. 

Such was the case with the Arco AM/PM application of Chandi Group USA, to be built on the corner of Caldwell and West Street.  That location has been zoned mixed commercial for many years. 

Chandi Group USA has experience developing Arco AM/PM's throughout the state.  They built and operate the one on Lovers Lane, and have just finished building one on Plaza Drive.  Both of these are well designed, maintained, and compliment the surrounding neighborhood.

The Caldwell project, however, is a little different.  Although located on arterials, it is surrounded by some residential.  The initial proposal was very large, including ten fuel dispensers (Costco has eleven), was to be located on almost two acres, included a convenience store with fast food restaurant covering 6,000 square feet, had a 5,000 square foot automated car wash, and an 18.5 foot tall, 6,775 square foot canopy, with underground fuel storage tanks at the northwest corner of the property.  When the surrounding neighborhood learned of this application, they organized and made their voices heard.  Some city council members met with them in advance to listen to their concerns.

The project came before the Planning Commission on April 9, 2018, which voted 4-1 to deny it as it existed on that date.  The developer then appealed their decision to the city council.

The city council heard the matter on May 7 at the Convention Center, with over 200 people in attendance.  However, what the city council considered on May 7 was not the same plan as the Planning Commission denied on April 9.  Approximately one week before the city council meeting, the developer presented a downsized plan.  It now provided that the land to be developed was less than 1-1/2 acres, it deleted the car wash and vacuum bays, deleted the fast food restaurant component and downsized the convenience store to 3,800 square feet, dropped the canopy height to 16 ½ feet, and size to 4,370 square feet with eight fuel dispensers, and moved the underground fuel storage tanks to the east side, to be a greater distance from neighboring homes.

The council was provided a new staff report, and many letters both pro and con from interested parties.  Additionally, I spoke with each of the planning commissioners about why they had voted the way they had.  All five of them indicated that they favored the project, but the four that voted against said that their main concern was the car wash and that the project was too large for the surrounding neighborhood. 

At the May 7 meeting, the council took testimony from interested parties for two to three hours. There were some from the neighborhood who favored this downsized project, but they were  out-numbered by those who opposed it in its entirety.  After considering all testimony and relevant information, the council voted 5-0 to approve the downsized/revised site plan, and as part of that approval, further downsized the project to only allow six fuel dispensers.  This approved project was now a standard-size gas station.

No facts or studies were presented showing that a standard-size gas station increases crime, homelessness, public drunkenness and disorder, or otherwise.  To the contrary, Visalia has many fine gas stations that are clean and attractive, and take appropriate security measures. The Shannon Ranch gas station is an example of a popular location which is well kept and an attractive addition to their neighborhood.

The neighborhood near Caldwell and West Streets did an excellent job presenting their position as to this project.  The reality is that they won, since they may have had a much larger operation in their neighborhood if they had not gotten involved and let the city know of their concerns.  Unfortunately, some in that neighborhood felt that they "lost" because they did not defeat the entire project.  Neither side got everything they wanted.  This project will result in additional jobs for Visalians, was properly zoned, and is located on a major commercial thoroughfare through Visalia.  The neighborhood indicated to us that they would have preferred a Trader Joe's or Chick-fil-A on that corner.  Unfortunately, the city is not in the business of building and developing properties.  Instead, we leave that to the private sector.

Again, congratulations to this neighborhood for their efforts which resulted in a downsized project, which will be more compatible.  It is my hope that these citizens, as well as many others, will continue to get involved with the political process, which will lead to Visalia being an even greater place to live.

                                                                                    Mayor Warren Gubler

THE SEQUOIA LEGACY TREE

For years I have frequented the downtown Visalia post office, scarcely paying any heed to the young sequoia tree growing just to the west of it.  It took a casual conversation between Terry Ommen, our city's historian laureate, and Suzanne Bianco to draw some attention to the plight of the ignored tree.  From there, Suzanne and the Convention and Visitors' Bureau (CVB) took the ball and ran with it.  They did fundraising, got community buy-in and assistance, and developed a small informational park, which was dedicated on Saturday, April 27.  We are hopeful that it will become another tourist destination for the city, remind people of our connection to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon, and encourage more tourists to pass through Visalia and to use the Sequoia shuttle to get to Sequoia National Park.  Many contractors, local hoteliers, and others contributed to this project. The following information is taken from the brochure prepared by the CVB, which you should obtain a copy of and read.

The tree is currently 65 feet tall, as opposed to the General Sherman tree which is 275 feet tall.  We estimate that our Sequoia Legacy Tree is 85 years old, having been planted in February 1936, when it was a 3 year old sapling.  It was planted by Guy Hopping, superintendent of General Grant National Park (now Kings Canyon), and Nathan Levy, Visalia postmaster.  Mr. Levy was very proud of the fact that this was the only Giant Sequoia tree growing on post office property in the United States.

In July 2015, the trunk of our tree measured 41 inches DBH (diameter at breast height) and the canopy width was about 18 feet.

Giant sequoia trees are found between 4,000 and 8,000 foot elevation, where conditions are ideal for their growth.  Our local national parks boast many of the world's largest trees by volume.  The General Sherman Tree is the largest in the world at 52,508 cubic feet, the General Grant Tree is the second largest at 46,608 cubic feet.  The largest of the sequoias are as tall as an average 26-story building, and their diameters at the base exceed the width of many city streets.

On September 25, 1890, Sequoia National Park was designated by President Benjamin Harrison and is the second oldest national park.  In 1918, an influential group of local men known as the "Mather Mountain Party" were instrumental in the creation of the National Park Service.  For nearly a century, Visalia has been known as the "gateway to the sequoias." 

One other hint for your visit to Visalia's Sequoia Legacy Tree.  The pathway around our local tree was designed to represent the circumference of the General Sherman tree (about 102 feet) so that you can compare the two side by side.  As mayor, I'd like to thank all those who had a hand in this project and in bringing it to fruition.  Next time you're downtown, please drop by and visit this latest amenity to our historic district.  And remember, something you do today may be considered historical by future generations!

Population Increase: The California Dept. of Finance recently released its annual population estimates. Visalia led the way with an increase for January 2017 to January 2018 from 133,841 to 136,246, a change of 1.8 percent. The rest of the county also continues to grow.  I’ve been told that if Visalia was located in Utah or New Mexico, we would be the second largest city in those states.  In any event, it’s nice that Visalia has retained its small town, friendly feel.

If you have questions or topics regarding the city which you would like to have addressed in future articles, please email Warren at warren.gubler@visalia.city.  For past articles, visit directfromwarren.blogspot.com.

                                                                                    Mayor Warren Gubler

QUIET PROGRESS

During the first few months of 2018, the city of Visalia has been involved in a number of substantial matters which don't always appear in the local press.  That is why I write this monthly article, to keep you informed.  While other towns and governing boards seem to be filling the printed page lately, Visalia and our city council continue to quietly make progress and serve our citizens.  The following are a number of recent items you might find interesting:

VISALIA SENIOR GAMES

The 3rd annual Visalia Senior Games were again a success.  We had 520 participants, with 111 coming from Visalia, 287 from our region (Madera County to Kern County), and others from various parts of California, together with four competitors from Texas, Oregon, Washington and Arizona.  Local retired businessman Don Overstreet, a golfer, gets the award for being the oldest participant this year, at age 91. I enjoyed shedding about 10 pounds in training for the games, and did well in the shot put and triple jump events.  City councilman Greg Collins competed in various swimming events. The largest competition was again in pickleball, which had a record 136 participants, with 100 participants in softball, 54 in track and field, and 38 in swimming.  A special thanks goes to Jostens which again donated the cost of our printed program. Other senior games will be hosted by the Bay area, Pasadena, the Sonoma Wine Country, San Diego, and the Inland Empire from April through September 2018.  If you didn't join with us this year, make 2019 the year that you get off the couch, turn off the t.v., and get back into shape.  Thanks also to our community volunteers and the Parks and Recreation Dept. for making this event a repeat success. 

CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU

We recently received a report from our CVB.  In 2017, the actualized economic impact of tourism in Visalia was $7.1 million dollars relating to convention center conferences.  Attendees at these events average 3.1 nights of hotel stay here.  Additionally, this resulted in 8,621 hotel/motel room nights, up 46.8% from 2016.  The types of organizations that book our convention center include religious (e.g., Great Western Fan Fest, Time Out For Women), sports (high school Girls Wrestling State Finals), and fraternal (Order of the Eastern Star).  The convention center’s 2018 calendar is quickly filling up.  New groups for 2018 include a YMCA conference, the California Superintendents Association, the Diocese of Fresno and the Department of Corrections.  The transient occupancy tax collected by these hotel stays have increased from $1.8 million in 2011 to $2.6 million in 2017.  For those of you who have attended conventions in big cities, you know how frenzied and rushed those can feel, particularly when dealing with rush hour traffic, crowds and just getting around town for various events.   I believe that more and more small and mid-sized conventions are looking for communities such as Visalia, which has a beautiful convention center and wonderful amenities, without losing that small town feel.

FINANCIAL REPORT UPDATE

Soon the city council will start crunching numbers and reviewing programs to come up with a new two-year budget beginning July 1, 2018. The city council recently reviewed our progress for budget year 2017/18.  If projections hold true, it is anticipated that at the end of this fiscal year, we will have a $4,407,965.00 budget surplus!  This surplus is the result of revenues being up from what we budgeted by $2.8 million, and expenditures being less than we anticipated by $2.2 million.  Sales taxes revenues were up 2.5% and property tax revenues by the same amount.  Our emergency reserves will increase to $14.9 million by the end of this budget cycle, which equals 25% of operating expenditures.  The city council adopted a policy that all surpluses are to first be deposited into reserves to maintain our emergency reserves at 25% of operating expenditures.  Any remaining surplus then will be deposited into the Civic Center reserve fund for future purposes. 

However, not everything in the report was rosey.  There are some signs of an economic slowdown, in that building permits are down over prior years, and houses are remaining on the market longer.  Additionally, the city's contribution to our employees' retirement system will increase annually by approximately one million dollars over the next several years.  Depending on whether there is an economic downturn, it may be much more difficult for future city councils to balance their budgets. 

ST. PADDY'S DAY PARADE

Kudos to our local Breakfast Lions Club for putting on the biggest and best Visalia St. Paddy's Day Parade yet!  This year there were 66 entries.  My wife and I were in the parade again this year, and it was obvious to us that the crowds were the largest which we've seen. 

My next MEET THE MAYOR office hours will be May 10.  Call 713-4535 for an appointment.

                                                                                    Mayor Warren Gubler

                                                                                    Warren.gubler@visalia.city      

                                                                                    Dir

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

The Visalia City Council, city manager, staff and community members met on February 8 and 9, 2018 at the Visalia Emergency Communications Center (VECC), for our city's 2018 planning workshop/retreat.

Why do we bother to plan ahead?  I'm reminded of the conversation between Alice and the Cheshire cat.  Alice asked "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"  To which the cat responded "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." Alice replied "I don't much care where."  Then the cat stated "Then it doesn't matter which way you go."  It does matter what direction Visalia takes, and thus the importance of charting our course.

At the retreat, we discussed the working relationship between the city council and the city manager and the expectations of each. 

Next we discussed the retirement plan of our city employees and staff, known as "CalPERS."  Over the next several years, Visalia's annual contribution into that defined benefit plan will increase by one million dollars per year.  To meet this funding obligation imposed upon Visalia and other cities throughout the state will entail either cutting back city services to our citizens, or the legislature or courts making changes to the current unsustainable retirement system.

Another topic was the new civic center planned for east downtown.  While the VECC has already been built there, and much of the infrastructure is now in, a lot of planning is still needed to determine the dimensions of a future civic center/city hall, and police administration building.  We discussed the size of such buildings, whether we should try to anticipate the future by oversizing such buildings, and the need to determine overall staffing, space needs and funding options.

We then deliberated about Measure N, the half-cent sales tax increase approved by the citizens in 2016 relating to public safety, roads and parks.  Currently, it looks like there may eventually be some excess funds derived from this revenue source (how should such excess funds be spent?). We also brainstormed an emerging needs policy.

As to homelessness, we heard a positive report regarding our homeless work program also known as ECO (Environmental Cleanup Opportunities).  It was reported that 29 people have either gone through or are currently in the ECO program.  Sixteen have found gainful employment, including as a restaurant kitchen helper, warehouse clerk, supervisor at a new fast food restaurant and some hourly positions with the city.  The council was pleased with this report and directed staff to continue to find funding to expand the ECO jobs program in partnership with the Workforce Investment Board.  The council also determined that it wanted to explore ways to fund a mental health worker as part of the police department's HOPE team, and we want to continue to participate in the countywide task force to end homelessness.

Additionally, we discussed the projected growth of Visalia, infill areas, and senior housing possibilities.  Traffic circulation within the city and how to improve it was another topic.  We discussed the imminent widening of the intersection at Demaree and Goshen, and other traffic pinch points. 

The foregoing is but my brief summation of our planning sessions, and due to space limitations is not all-inclusive.  However, through this planning process, we have clarified the City of Visalia's goals, directions and objectives for 2018 and beyond.  Unlike Alice in Wonderland, since we now know where we are headed, it will be much easier to follow the correct path.

If you have questions or topics regarding the city which you would like to have addressed in future articles, please email Warren at warren.gubler@visalia.city.  For past articles, visit directfromwarren.blogspot.com.

                                                

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

CAFR

In January, the Visalia city council received and reviewed the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for fiscal year July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017.  State law requires a complete set of audited financial statements annually by the city.  This report, which was almost 200 pages long, gives the city council an opportunity to review the financial health of the city, and is done by an outside auditor.  The report showed that sales tax revenues had increased by 4%, property tax revenues had increased by 5%, and transient occupancy taxes had increased by 12% over the prior year.  Excluding revenues from the sale of land, we ended that fiscal year with a $900,000.00 surplus!  Adding that surplus to our emergency reserves, along with interest earnings and some land transfer revenues, brought the reserves ending balance up to $12.9 million dollars.  The council then authorized the transfer from unassigned funds of another $1.5 million dollars to increase the emergency reserves balance to $14.4 million dollars.  Another way that I refer to our emergency reserves is our "rainy day funds."  The goal of the council has been to build up those reserves to 25% of our general fund.  The new balance achieves that 25% goal, and is the highest that our city's emergency reserves have ever been historically.  I note that, due to the great recession, the emergency reserves reached a low point of $1.3 million dollars in 2012/13 and this city council has rebuilt the reserves to what we have currently.  Now that we have rebuilt the emergency reserves, we can start using future surpluses to save up for other projects.  Currently, we are enjoying a relatively prosperous economy, but we are prepared for the time when such is not the case.  The general conclusion of the CAFR report was that Visalia is in good financial condition overall.  We always appreciate receiving this type of good news.

ECONOMIC STRENGTH

More good news is that Area Development Magazine recently came out with its 2017 rankings related to metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) based upon performance in prime work force, economic strength, year-over-year growth and five-year growth.  Overall, Visalia/Porterville's MSA (Tulare County) ranked 64^th out of 394 MSAs across the country, which was a vast improvement over our 2016 ranking.  This ranking was the highest in the Central Valley region.  By comparison, Fresno ranked 105^th, Modesto ranked 152^nd and Bakersfield ranked 374^th.  This is more good news for our city and area and we look forward to 2018 being another banner year!

VISALIA P.D.

Our local police department held its first annual awards ceremony on January 17.  Chief Jason Salazar handed out many well-deserved awards to employees of our police department.  One of the awards was the "lifesaving award" given to four of our police staff who acted heroically when they happened to be at a concert in Las Vegas in 2017 where shooting broke out.  They assisted other concert goers and saved lives by their quick action, even though they were off duty at the time.  Space does not allow me to go into detail about all of the well-deserved awards that were presented that afternoon.  Suffice it to say that we appreciate what our public safety officers do in our community.  While I'm at it, let me just share part of a letter which I received from local citizen "Fred" complementing officer Tim Connors.  Officer Connors assisted Fred in recovering some stolen property that Fred wasn't even aware had been taken!  Fred wrote "Thanks to Tim Connors, I got my property back and his actions will probably help convict these burglars.  His quick work helped prove that there had been a break-in, goods were stolen, and it made me feel really great!"  If you haven't thanked one of our public safety officers recently for what they do in our community, next time you come across one, let them know you appreciate their efforts.

SENIOR GAMES

The 2018 Visalia Senior Games are fast approaching, March 10^th and 11^th, and 17^th and 18^th.  This will be our 3^rd annual event, and if you haven't signed up yet, visit visaliaseniorgames.com.  See you there!

                                                                                                     Mayor Warren Gubler

                                                                                                    warren.gubler@visalia.city