Carlsbadians who couldn’t afford the $85-a-plate Chamber of Commerce State of the City report luncheon at the Sheraton last month were invited to a free showing of a ten-minute video at the Dove Library a few days later. Former Mayor Bud Lewis didn’t like to give or listen to long speeches, so he turned to videos to serve as the annual report to city residents. Mayor Matt Hall continued the tradition, sacrificing information for feel-good entertainment.
Sinclair Lewis would have smiled at the unbridled boosterism of Carlsbad city officials featured in this year’s State of the City video. He’d be reminded of the self-satisfied city fathers of Zenith, Babbit’s fictional Midwestern hometown. But Carlsbad residents were shortchanged if they expected to get more than a virtual pep rally from their city’s annual report. [click to continue…]
About 11,000 students are expected to head back to Carlsbad schools Wednesday, the same number as two years ago. But this year they’ll be greeted by nearly 60 fewer teachers and a school year shortened by three days. High schoolers will find their classrooms bulging with an average of 39 classmates (NCT, June 28, School Trustees adopt $77M budget).
The school district was forced to cut spending by $7 million over the last two years. It will only get worse if Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative fails to pass. If that happens, school officials say, the school year may shrink by as much as three weeks.
It’s a lose/lose proposition for students: larger classes and less learning time. The ones hurt most will be those who need more individual attention. The test score achievement gap shows they’ll be from low income families, the ones already being left behind. [click to continue…]
Mark Twain once said of life’s injustices, “No good deed goes unpunished.” That came to mind when I learned of Carlsbad’s plan to outsource jobs of city workers who sacrificed pay and benefits over the last several years to help the city survive the Great Recession. Carlsbad not only survived, it prospered on the backs of those worker bees.
The city council voted Tuesday night to seek bids from contractors to outsource all parks maintenance services. A consulting firm was paid $102,000 for a report claiming contractors could save the city $1.7 to $3.68 million each year.
What’s wrong with this picture? Ninety-six percent of city residents rate parks maintenance “good” or “excellent.” But city officials are now ready to risk that level of citizen satisfaction by replacing those responsible for it with lower-paid workers hired to enhance the profitability of a private contractor.
The consultants compared Carlsbad’s yearly parks maintenance cost per-acre, half of which is currently contracted out, with that of three regional cities that outsource all landscaping services. Only one, at $5,464 per acre, was lower than Carlsbad’s $6,572. The other two spent $10,353 and $10,104. [click to continue…]
A year ago we learned Carlsbad is considering outsourcing city services, but to this date we haven’t been told why.
At a July 2011 workshop, city council members heard a presentation by Carrollton, Texas’ Director of Competition, Tom Guilfoy (“City to explore some outsourcing of government work,” NCT, 2011). He told the council his city saved at least $25 million over nine years under its Managed Competition plan.
Liking what they heard, the council directed City Manager Lisa Hildabrand to conduct an internal review to see if outsourcing could make city government more business-like.
City park landscaping work has been suggested for potential outsourcing, which added irony to Councilman Mark Packard’s warning that council members should not “let the grass grow under our feet” waiting for Carlsbad to “handle its operations the way private businesses do.” Packard is apparently not as worried about the weeds growing under his feet while he’s strolling through Aviara Park if a private contractor is maintaining it with lower paid employees.
Carrollton’s Guilfoy proudly pointed out how much money was saved by outsourcing solid waste management collection and laying off 50 city employees. Carlsbad outsourced waste collection long ago. Carrollton’s Parks and Recreation department escaped outsourcing by reducing costs of equipment replacements. [click to continue…]
When they rolled out their 2012-13 preliminary operating budget two weeks ago Carlsbad city officials were singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.” But not everyone joined in the chorus. A parade of disgruntled residents reprimanded the city council at its June 5 meeting for the city’s failure to invest in more open space. And now members of the planning commission join hotel industry experts in suggesting the city might soon be overbuilt with hotel rooms.
One land use issue that didn’t make the headlines can be found in a report on the city’s changing demographics by Community and Economic Development Director Gary Barberio.
Barberio pointed to forecasts showing the addition of 20,000 Carlsbadians by 2040, a 20 percent increase. But the number of 35 to 64 year-olds, who now make up nearly half of city residents, is expected to shrink to little more than a third of the population.
While the share of Carlsbad’s Generation X gets smaller, the number of Millennials between the ages of 20 and 34, is expected to grow by 20 percent. Baby Boomers from 65 to 80 will rise by a whopping 124 percent.
No Child Left Behind and the rise of charter schools have been the primary drivers of school reform in the last decade. But while NCLB promised school accountability, it got it by labeling students and schools successes or failures based on test scores alone. It failed the promise implied by its title, to close the learning gap separating students by income and ethnicity.
California’s charter schools, on the other hand, freed of state bureaucracy and teachers unions, were meant to help left-behind students bloom by using innovative methods traditional schools could adopt. But with a few exceptions, North County charters have served mostly as havens for families not quite wealthy enough to afford private schools. Home schooling is a feature of the largest of them, a popular choice for those who’ve lost faith in traditional schools. Low income and single-parent families are left behind when parents are required to take the place of trained professionals.
Americans have loved the underdog ever since a ragtag bunch of patriots whipped a king’s army. But a darker side of our history reveals how often we label individuals who don’t fit the norm; creating the very obstacles to success we praise them for overcoming.
Newspaper opinionators can do a lot to expose the damage done by stereotyping. That’s why it was disappointing to read local columnist Thomas Arnold’s take on Carlsbad Village Academy students, (“Decision jeopardizes student safety,” May 2).
Budget cuts have forced the closure of the CVA campus next year, requiring its students to move to Carlsbad High. That spurred Arnold to suggest CHS student safety will be at risk from those who “couldn’t cut it in regular school because they got pregnant, were expelled, or have behavioral problems.”
After quoting a Carlsbad High student who’s afraid his new classmates might establish a “turf” and “start fights,” Arnold concludes, “I’d be every bit as alarmed as this 10th grader is.”
You can tell from his most recent mailer that Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, hates his job. He complains about having to work year-round in Sacramento, with little time to ask local voters what they want him to do there. Forced to accept an overblown salary while working full-time on issues that “are not priorities for the hard-working people of this state,” he can’t take a second job in the real world.
So what’s an unhappy State Assembly member to do? Survey his constituents, of course, to see if they agree he and his colleagues are overpaid, out of touch and underemployed.
Mindful of how busy we all are, Garrick boils his survey down to four simple, yes, or no questions and one “positive” or “negative” opinion. If you answer yes to the first question, lawmakers should have full-time careers and be part-time politicians, the next three are easy. Yes, you want a part-time legislature, yes, the legislature passes too many bills, and yes your representative is grossly overpaid. If you think “no” answers are acceptable, check out the answer sheet included or just Google “Congress: job ratings.” [click to continue…]
Last week Carlsbad’s city council approved an amended employment agreement with City Manager Lisa Hildabrand, effective January 1, 2012, listing her new salary at $230,000.
Communications Director Kristina Ray told me Hildabrand’s $13,000 pay hike, which became effective November 28, was based on her 2008 contract.
You could hear the buzzing of angry city worker bees in Carlsbad and Escondido when they learned their bosses were getting huge salary increases while their own pay remained frozen. Adding insult to injury, some of Carlsbad’s lowest paid workers are facing cuts in take-home pay because of an increase in what they’re required to pay into the state’s retirement system.
The salary of Carlsbad’s city manager is linked to the second highest paid city manager in the county, excluding the city of San Diego. Annual increases are limited to the rise in California’s Consumer Price Index. But additional “salary adjustments” are allowed if the price of city managers is driven up by pay increases in other cities. [click to continue…]
Carlsbad school officials are getting lots of advice lately about how to save money without hurting students. But it amounts mostly to blaming the victims of a budget crisis they didn’t create: the teachers union for selfishness and protecting bad teachers from layoffs, administrators for wasting money on frills.
Those who think unions are “wicked,” the word used by one community columnist, often praise teachers for their good work as individuals. But when they organize to improve their profession, they’re accused of putting their own interests ahead of kids. Using that logic, you might say the same about parents who follow flight attendant instructions to put on their own oxygen masks before helping their kids with theirs.
Teachers face obstacles to their effectiveness when they work in overcrowded classrooms, have to buy their own teaching materials, and are given little time to collaborate on lesson plans. Union efforts to reduce those obstacles are truly in the best interests of students.
Common sense might suggest a “keep the best and fire the rest” layoff policy. But in this case common sense doesn’t make good sense.
Here’s why. The best and worst teachers often stand out. But it’s much harder to rank those who fall in between. Evaluating teachers on test scores alone ignores learning that can’t be measured by multiple choice. Congeniality and budget savings could become the primary criteria if administrators alone make the call. Most would agree that popularity isn’t the best measure of teaching excellence. [click to continue…]
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The Riehl World: City Video More Fat Less Filling
by Richard J. Riehl on September 6, 2012
Carlsbadians who couldn’t afford the $85-a-plate Chamber of Commerce State of the City report luncheon at the Sheraton last month were invited to a free showing of a ten-minute video at the Dove Library a few days later. Former Mayor Bud Lewis didn’t like to give or listen to long speeches, so he turned to videos to serve as the annual report to city residents. Mayor Matt Hall continued the tradition, sacrificing information for feel-good entertainment.
Sinclair Lewis would have smiled at the unbridled boosterism of Carlsbad city officials featured in this year’s State of the City video. He’d be reminded of the self-satisfied city fathers of Zenith, Babbit’s fictional Midwestern hometown. But Carlsbad residents were shortchanged if they expected to get more than a virtual pep rally from their city’s annual report. [click to continue…]
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