By: Lloyd White, | Original Article at Patch
20 years ago when Beaumont was a small town, struggling
financially and looking to grow their way out of their problems, hiring a
consulting firm probably made good sense. Urban Logic has proven they know how
to grow a city’s population and how to work with developers to build houses.
I believe Beaumont is at the point in our City’s life cycle
that we need a more mature growth strategy. It’s time to focus on taking our
city to a new level, a level Urban Logic has no experience developing and they
are showing their inexperience. They have only had one client, the City of
Beaumont, over the last 20 years. They appear to be struggling with the growth
they’ve been so successful in building here.
We are a much different city when Urban Logic was first
hired. They have no experience consulting cities in the later stages of growth.
Employing a strategy of funding the housing growth on the back of the future
homeowners of the home developments through Mello-Roos bonds may have worked in
the early stages of the growth of our city but this financing strategy is
designed to build housing developments. Mello-Roos funds are designed to support
the communities who are paying the interest and premium on the bonds, they were
never meant to fund city wide infrastructure such as highway interchanges,
bridges, and desalination plants.
The City’s current strategy, designed by Urban Logic, to use
Mello-Roos funds for city wide infrastructure is, at the least, poor resource
management and most likely illegal. Instead of fighting citizens’ request for
public records and calls for internal control audits, they should be opening
their books to the public and offering the City Council and our communities
more appropriate funding strategies for the growth we need now.
Urban Logic and the City of Beaumont are both entering new
territory, neither the City’s administration or Urban Logic have been here
before. It’s time to hire experts who have a proven record of developing a
bedroom community into an independent city. A city that has the resources and
services to take care of all its residents.
Our City Manager also lacks the experience to move Beaumont
to the next stage. I know he is comfortable working with his friends from Urban
Logic but he needs people with a different type of experience than what Urban
Logic can offer. We need a strategy to bring retail, health, higher education
and technology jobs and businesses to Beaumont. And we need a financial
strategy where all citizens share the burden, not just the new residents in the
CFD areas. Why should our neighbors continue to benefit from labor force and
sales tax revenue? A strategy guided by Urban Logic that doesn’t satisfy the
wants and the needs of our community.
It’s time to thank Urban Logic and free them up to move on
to do what they do best, developing a small town into a bedroom community.
While many may appreciate what they have accomplished here, they have been well
compensated for their work and we don’t owe them another 20 years. We need to
enter a new chapter in our community’s life and Urban Logic has no experience
in the type of growth we need now. It is important to the future of our city to
find and hire people who have had experience with building an independent city.
We should employ department managers with more appropriate experience who don’t
also have a financial stake in the projects they recommend to our city council.
We are well past the point of needing a consulting firm.
Tomorrow night the Beaumont City Council will be considering
renewing Urban Logic’s contract. I’d like to see our council stand on their own
feet, show some courage, and do what is best for our community’s future.