Town Talks With the Mayor
Town Talks with the Mayor is a monthly video podcast produced by the Town of Danville featuring Mayor Newell Arnerich in conversation about community priorities, Town initiatives, major projects, and timely local topics.
Town Talks With the Mayor
Why Danville Works: A Conversation with Town Manager Tai Williams
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In this episode of Town Talks with the Mayor, Mayor Newell Arnerich sits down with Danville Town Manager Tai Williams to explore what is often referred to as “The Danville Way” and why Danville continues to be a model for success.
With 30 years of service to the Town, Tai shares insights into Danville’s unique approach to fiscal responsibility, long-term planning, and thoughtful governance. The conversation highlights how the Town balances investing in today’s needs while preparing for the future, all while maintaining a strong financial foundation.
Mayor Arnerich and Tai also discuss the management philosophy that has helped shape Danville’s success, as well as the challenges and opportunities the Town may face in the years ahead.
Tune in to learn how Danville’s distinctive approach to leadership and financial stewardship continues to make it a thriving and resilient community.
Welcome, episode two of Town Talks with the Mayor and our second podcast. And we're here today with Ty Williams, who is our town manager, been with the town of Danville for more than two decades, and local resident. You've raised your family here. Your husband has worked in this area as well. And it's been an exciting relationship and personally to get to know you all these years. And particularly, you came from an area that I have a particular interest in being an architect and in planning, but your background started in city-regional planning, transportation, and then up to managing virtually every department and organization. So, Ty, welcome.
SPEAKER_05Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_00And exciting to have you here. And, you know, it's now you're running the ship, and we want to talk today about again, what is it that makes Danville unique, and what your philosophy is. And eventually we'll get to the hard part, which is what do we predict the future is going to be? How can we continue what we have, given things coming, unfunded mandates from the state, economy, our uniqueness in how Danville kind of got classified as that quote limited service city, so our tax share is so small. But you have talked about recently at one of our workshops, we had the council and all of our commissioners, which are all volunteers, and you talked about the Danville Way. And I think that's a way to start this conversation off. Can you share with us what's the Danville Way and why is it important?
SPEAKER_05Well, thank you, Mayor. Honored to be here for this second episode of our podcast. I would say the Danville Way is a very special approach to how we govern. And when we say we govern, we mean we do it in consideration of what our community is really looking for. So when we talk about fiscal discipline and approach to kind of being very careful with how we spend the taxpayers' dollars, the Danville Way is a couple of things. First and foremost, it's about being laser focused on providing service that the community has asked for, right? So the Danville Way is about honing in on the four original drivers for incorporation. That was planning. So we talked a little bit about planning, making sure that the community continues to feel the way it did, despite the fact that physically it has grown, and I would argue for the better. The second P is police, right? So, you know, we have achieved that and we'll continue to maintain that. And police and public safety is the second P of the four P's. Parks. So very, very, very focused on making sure that our parks are as wonderful as we have always envisioned them to be. And last but not least, the fourth P was about public works. So we take our mission very uh seriously, and public works is about making sure that we continually reinvest in our roads, in the infrastructure that we can't see, like all of our storm drain systems so it carries out storm water. And of course, making sure that we can travel safely through our community. So the Danville Way is about laser focus on those four P's, as well as making sure that we have the funds to spend, not only now, but ten years into the future. So the Danville Way is always about looking ahead and planning ahead and forecasting what we might need and navigate our way through the challenges that we might see.
SPEAKER_00And I think you know, you brought up two good points. One that cities fall on hard times when they realize they don't have money to pave the roads. And you know, just within the past, excuse me, past eight years, the government accounting code is cities now have to um list in their financial statements um annually the shortfall on um road uh maintenance for the pavement condition index. And we've been able to stay above above all those standards at a fairly high level compared to um many of our neighbors. And that value proposition, I think, has always been shared by the council. It's hard to do because of the the limited nature of our tax base. I shouldn't say tax base, our share of that tax base. Correct. We have a great tax base, but almost 93, 92 percent of that goes elsewhere. Correct. Um major share going to the county. Um but capital reinvestment just as a whole, um, we were talking earlier that I like to look and compare ourselves to other cities. And I was mentioning that one of our cities, um, you know, they look like they had a balanced budget. But when you look at then, well, how much are they investing in capital? Because that's that is discretionary. But it's it's a it's a measure, that bellwether of how healthy the city is. And they were investing less than two dollars a person, which is about like paving one small street. Um and Danville has had a uniqueness, maybe you can share, because we've had the discipline to set aside and not be tempted to spend it on other fun projects, but to to help keep our city and our infrastructure um in healthy working condition. Maybe share with us how much money have we spent, what do we get out of that, and how do we do that?
SPEAKER_05Well, thank you. Uh I think it's one of the core philosophies of this council that I have as an administrator greatly appreciated, right? Uh first and foremost, very unique to this council and this community is the fact that we undertake a pay-as-you-go approach. I it's frankly unheard of. I don't think I've met another city in the world. We pay cash for everything. Yes, yes, we pay cash for everything. Um so what does that mean? It means that we're not, well, I mean, first of all, I would say that it is a generational compact. It means that we are not going to erode uh operating expenditures in the future because we've had the discipline to save a little bit at a time. And when we have enough, we will build that park, that feature, uh, repave that road. Uh the ability to do that is what allows us to kind of navigate uh really difficult economic times. Now, it doesn't mean that we haven't built a lot of wonderful civic facilities, right? So since the year 2000, this little town has been able to invest something like 200 million into our community. Uh that takes the form of 16 community buildings, uh, all these wonderful community parks, both large and small, and pocket parks, extensive trail system. I think if you ask anyone on the street why they are here, besides feeling safe, they would say, oh, it's the extraordinary physical environment that they could, you know, um take their families to. So the capital side we take very seriously. Um it's it's not easy. It's easier to say than do, right? Because frankly, it takes patience. Uh we have to build it up a year at a time. It requires sequencing. So for those who want it tomorrow, you know, that's even council members want that tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00And you know, we generally take seven to eight years if we're gonna build something like when we um redid the um veterans hole and added the senior center there, you know, it took a whole combination of funding, but it took years to save that money. And for most people, particularly the elected side of the equation, they want to get done things done within their terms. So I think that's probably the one of the reasons some of us stick around a little longer because to to really follow on that vision, you have to have that patience. And that I think that's also a pretty unique um feature.
SPEAKER_05Oh, absolutely. I want to just kind of capitalize on that point a little bit. You don't meet a lot of elected officials, and I've met a lot of them through my work in the regional transportation arena. You don't meet a lot of elected officials who are making policy decisions for the long haul, right? I think, you know, I again it's easy to say, but our ability to deliver on that long-term vision is a direct byproduct of our electeds who have long-term vision and they're patient enough to wait. Because, as an example, we'll talk about our terrible roadways. It costs 3.3 million a mile to repave those.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's an extraordinary amount of money.
SPEAKER_05Right? But but we say, look, yeah, well, as an example, Camino Tasahara in a certain direction. We will need X amount of money, right? So the council has the discipline to say, okay, let's set aside a million a year. And by the time we reach X number of years, we'll be able to do that project. And we can point with true transparency in our capital improvement program exactly the year that we will have enough money to repave that road. And I think that's something we should be extremely proud of because discipline is daily practice of choosing.
SPEAKER_00It's hard at times, but you know, it's kind of like um, and one of our other council members says it, it's kind of like having your own home budget. You know, you only have what you have. We don't use credit cards, we don't borrow money. And um uh but it is a challenge. But I think what's extraordinary too, uh um in conjunction with that, um, you know, yes, we're the safest city, yes, we're the financially best run. And you would say most people think, oh well, you've just added a lot of people. Well, I got here 32 years ago elected. We have the same number of employees then as we do now. Yes. Exact same number of sworn police officers. And when you compare us to other cities um and communities, they're 40 to 50 percent higher in number of employees in that. So what is it, why were we doing that from your perspective? Because there's there's uniqueness about it, which I know the answer, but I'd like to hear you. How does that um help manage our resources and help keep us laser focused to be able to do these other things?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, thanks for the question. And in fact, it's the reason why I've been here since 1996, right? It's such a joy to be here. Uh, and I would say it's two things. We're very creative about how we deliver service. Um, we really were set on the right path from our former town manager. Uh he really believed that we our job in local government is not necessarily just to deliver all of the services, but just to but our job is to make sure that they are delivered. So, what does that mean? It means that we partner with other agencies. So that comes in the form of the fire district, the school district, our police contracts, which leads us to the fact that we are probably the first city, at least in the East Bay, to do contract municipal services. And that allows us to expand our uh talent base through contracts when we have a lot of work. And then during tough times, we then can contract back to the core staffing. Uh so this ability to expand and contract without strongly through labor agreements is what allows us to pivot quickly and navigate with a lot of agility. And we've done that through the recession of the late 80s, through the Great Recession of the 2008-2010 period, through the pandemic. Um compared to other cities, um, we suffered significantly less. I think we contracted, we held, and then we slowly expand it, but primarily through contraction and expansion of the contract service model. So partnership is a literal uh fiscal strategy, and so is contract services.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think one of the things I've observed too that it's um, you know, we have a tendency um or the luxury I should say, to focus on hiring really highly skilled, very intelligent, very effective staff because we like in maintenance, we don't need 80 workers because we contract that out to competitive bid from roadside with one contract, um building maintenance on another, parks in another. And we get very high service levels by doing that. And we get competitiveness, um, and when the world changes, as we've seen, like we're gonna have less um maintenance needs in some areas because the lawns are having to go away by state mandate, that we don't have to have that staff on board, and we just modify our contracts and the costs um move proportionally. And I think that that is so unique. And I think the question is somebody would say, Well, gee, is that cost effective? Absolutely. Is it fair? We all we pay prevailing wages to all of that. So there's it's not cutting corners, it's just using um a financial tool in the most effective way. So I think that's unique, and I think um, as you pointed out, um, you know, we have a culture of doing that. So as people come to work for us, they understand that. But I really do. I'm impressed every hire that we've had to replace people of extraordinary people, um, all the way from information services to IT. I remember when I started, we had one person in IT and they were part-time, and it was the assistant manager. That was our whole ID department. But you know, the world has changed. Our backbone of our system, the technology to support our staff so that we don't have to keep hiring people, it's critical. So we've we've reprogrammed who's doing what. Correct, correct. What do you see as the the future in terms of, you know, technology versus staffing? Is there still opportunities in the future, or are we kind of going to come because we do tenure budgets, as you mentioned?
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_00What do you see the future in those areas?
SPEAKER_05Uh from a staffing standpoint, uh I see that we're going to be relatively the same in number. The composition might be different, right? So we might not have the exact same staffing everywhere in every department. But that's um consistent with kind of our philosophy of how we operate. Uh certain demands will grow in certain areas and they will contract in others. Uh, you know, if I could go back to the whole maintenance example, um we hire throughout the organization, not just in maintenance, what we would used to characterize as knowledge workers, right? So you'll see in throughout our departments, the folks that we like to hire are the people who like to solve problems. So they they're kind of their intellectual funny bone gets tickled whenever they go, ah, here's a challenge. How can I solve it in a different way? You know, and we'll choose contracting in very specific instances, not all instances. For example, we know our community loves to go up to one of our maintenance workers and ask them questions. So we hire and place positions where they have the most interface with a community. So they're changing garbage can bags. Do we really need a maintenance worker to do that? Not necessarily, but we also know that that's a high-touch situation, right? That's where the community might engage with them. Whereas the community is probably not going to approach some guy on a big lawnmower with his head, you know, protection on, trying to drive the lawnmower through the grass. So we are very careful about exactly where we put those contract service employees versus actual town employees. So uh problem solvers and where to place them. And we will do something very similar as we move forward into the future. Uh people have asked about AI, what does that mean, um, especially for local government? And what we would say is we would probably use technology to really help us iterate on potential options. We would use technology in uh expediting the more basic um uh non-complex tasks so that we can save our highly technically high knowledge workers for the more complex interpersonal engagements. So I would see that that's how we're gonna solve many of those problems utilizing technology in the future.
SPEAKER_00And you're an expert at it, and I'll tell you why. It's not on my list of questions. I remember back when um we were working on how to improve, particularly um uh building inspection and our whole building department processing, and you headed up the task of integrating a new accounting management tool system, major project, major investment, but it was a technology investment. And you also added and went through the um the implementation of the building module. And you know, it changed whereas, and I'll be honest, being an architect in the construction world, it was common that um a contractor be working on a project and they had some corrections from the the building inspection. But they might tell the client a different story, not nefariously, but they're trying to, you know, keep things going and say, um, you know, that that town or whatever is really, you know, they're tough and it's not fair I have to do this. Well, what it changed was the owner, the architect, the engineer, everybody gets a copy instantly on your mobile phone or mobile device. It says everything that transpired, and all the complaints that have dropped. Because I would get, as mayor or a council member, I would get complaints. Oh, your building department, you'd look into it. Well, actually, they needed to do those things. And it's made everybody more accountable. Yes. I mean, that I think is an example. While those are um difficult systems, customer um sort of level of service for customer satisfaction, I think that's a really good example that you've done.
SPEAKER_05Yes, well, thank you. Uh you know, and and we would like to take that to the next level, right? Uh, into the planning arena as an example. So we get a lot of phone calls about basic questions. What's my setback?
SPEAKER_01Yes, right.
SPEAKER_05Right? What's my front yard setback? What's my side yard setback? Uh and we spend an extraordinary amount of human time answering those phone calls. They're not they're good questions, but we have to ask the question: can that be answered by something that is enabled by technology so that we can reserve the highly technical and competent staff person to answer the more complex questions, which is like, I know my setback is X, but I wonder, is there room to uh lower it even more? Can I do it this way versus that way? So we can use and save our staff resources for much more complex and much more high-touch uh questions. And that is what enables our community to think that we provide extraordinary service. So the goal is to minimize administrivia using technology, and we can save the staff resources for the high-touch, highly complex questions.
SPEAKER_00And get and get fast responses to uh customers. Because sometimes it's all of that, but you know, it might end up going to voicemail or they an email, and we get high volumes of that. So yeah, I think that that is a great example. But I really I was so proud that when we implemented, particularly that building system, the average person does know our accounting system and the management tool, but boy, is it up. It's a system that any any management person, any department head can look, see where they're at, report out. You don't have to wait to a quarterly report, you don't have to wait to the end of the year to find out. So it's uh it's a really, you know, not instantaneous, but it's a really online tool that you can use at any point in time in history.
SPEAKER_05Oh, and may I just augment? Yes. Um the other part that I think really helped our construction industry and as well as our homeowners is the fact that they could apply for building permits online. And so when you think about it, in the past, the contractors uh had to come in right in person to apply, fill out a form. Why couldn't they? Plans are digital.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_05Plans are digital. Why did they need to print it out? Truck it into the town, hand it over the counter, uh, fill out a form in person. They can do that online while they're eating dinner next to their computer. So all of that is what allows us to provide exceptional customer service, but with the same number of staff, just as another example.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know that it's interesting you mentioned the building permit specifically because there's a lot of building permits they decided they're totally online, and you get the permit online. You never even have to come in.
SPEAKER_03And pay online.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. Um, speaking of payment and stuff, one of the challenges um that the reason we've had to do this, which actually turns about to be a good example of how to manage a city cost effectively, but we were also kind of forced to do it because when Danville Incorporated Um post-prop 13 cities, the tax um revenue sharing was very different. So cities like Walnut Creek, there are 20 to 24 percent of property taxes. And we started at just barely 7 percent. And we we've moved all the way up, not because we did anything. It's they the state of California swapped vehicle license fees and other things and gave us a little bit more on the tax base. So we're at about 7.6 percent. Which makes it really challenging. So almost 93 percent of taxes go elsewhere.
SPEAKER_02Correct.
SPEAKER_00And some cities are getting a quarter of those taxes to do that. So just like our unfortunately, our school district got classified as a low wealth district, they kind of use the cover well, you're a limited service city, you're not gonna have to need all these resources. Um so when you look at cities, and from my seat, I always wonder how well are we doing? And it's not just um, oh, I want to say, hey, we're doing a great job. It really is a tool and it's a management tool. And in round numbers, um we spend just a little over $800 without capital per resident, which is really good. Most cities are double to 450, 550 percent. That's just here in our county. And then the real measure, the to me, the real measure is not only how cost-effective that is, how much are you reinvesting? As you said before, nearly 200 million dollars um over the past two and a half decades, but we spend nearly $200, which is eight million dollars a year. That's really hard to do. And you know, it makes our tenure projections um sometimes makes your breath stop or your heart stop for a second. So what do you think? I know we sort of touched on it, but uh the challenges of the future, what is disrupting us from achieving our goals? Is it where's it coming from? Is it county, is it the state, or what world is um world influences are affecting us?
SPEAKER_05Well, uh I would say that well, uh backing up a bit, the town has always dealt with challenges, and I think our philosophical approach and discipline positions us well to navigate them. So I would say it's not different than prior years. Uh it's just a different challenge. All right. And which is what keeps the kind of people here here. Um but looking forward, I would say that we have some geopolitical conflicts that is going to drive up energy costs. How does that affect us? Well, uh I think we know that nearly or more than 20 percent of the world's crude oil goes through a particular strait, right, in the Middle East. Uh that is already driving up energy costs, so in the form of gasoline prices. Um that's going to limit uh discretionary spending. Um business tax base is focused on retail and restaurant and leisure services. And that's the kind of discretionary spending that families typically pull back on when there are macroeconomic pressures. Uh secondly, it has direct impacts on the town's uh operations because, for example, high gas prices will impact how much we have to pay for fuel for our fleet of vehicles, our police departments, et cetera. Uh the other thing I've just discovered that a large proportion of the world's fertilizer also goes through that straight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, actually, it's 80 percent of all the world's fertilizer.
SPEAKER_05So that's gonna directly affect our parks, our roadsides. Uh it will also translate through the costs of contract services because for all of our contractors that provide uh lawn mowing and maintenance services, their their fuel costs are gonna go up. So uh what are we gonna do about that? Uh well I think one of the things that we're doing in looking ahead is we're locking in new contracts now before costs continue to escalate. With regard to our business community, uh, you know, we have a wonderful economic development uh staff, actually one half of one, who works with a lot of businesses about capitalizing on a lot of special events that the council has approved. But the other thing that we're doing is we're looking more creatively about all of these wonderful town assets called community buildings and a village theater in the downtown. And we say to ourselves, could we look to reposition some of those buildings and create higher value for rentals during the uh work week, weekdays? Bringing and attracting people here, maybe focus small boutique conferences, maybe corporate retreats that are one day long. Uh it not only creates more high value rentals, but it would also bring in more pedestrian traffic so that we can, you know, uh send all of that traffic into our downtown, into our supports our business. Yes, absolutely. I I'm a big believer in having one solution that tackles multiple issues at the same time.
SPEAKER_00So, you know, speaking of that, um, and it's been labeled um, you know, as the state has been through the past 25 years of a lot of significant financial ups and downs for a variety of reasons. But um, and they've always talked about well, they went through their reserves and then now they're called rainy day funds. Danville also has a uniqueness about that. So, how much is in our reserves? Why do we have the reserves and how did we get to that level of reserve, which is a little unique compared to most cities?
SPEAKER_05Um well, I'm really proud to share, and I've, you know, and everybody's very impressed every time I go out into the community. Our reserve policy is 20% of the operating budget. We're at about 41 percent. Right. That's 18 million, right? Uh and that is a tremendous accomplishment achieved by the whole pay as you go approach. And really, uh another philosophy of the councils is you know, you can spend money at the end of the fiscal year when we have our actual totals in in hand as easily as you spend it at the beginning. So this council's practice is to at the end of the fiscal year, when we've audited all of our numbers and we have savings. If we've actually saved enough money, the council had a great practice of let's let's sock away a little bit more to capital. Let's sock away a little bit more to that reserve. And little tiny actions over multiple years means big changes and a really strong fiscal foundation. So what I would tell people is that the world is quite uncertain right now, but we are on very strong, stable fiscal foundation and aground to be able to maneuver around it just as we've always had.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean it shows too, and um you know, we sometimes say it, but it's doesn't have a lot of meaning because we don't borrow money, but we have one of the highest creditors' ratings.
SPEAKER_05Yes, absolutely. It's the gold standard. We have a triple A rating.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right. Yeah. I don't know anybody. By the way, no public agency probably does it. Um but along that line, you know, with almost um $18 million, somebody had said, boy, that's that seems like a lot. And you'll hear criticism from other agencies because they don't do that. But I always remind people, and it's and we've all seen it, um, from the um Lama Prieta earthquake, um, to the Napa earthquake, to all the fires that have been around, and particularly fires in this area, earthquakes that will happen in the valley, you know, single-family homes, people are gonna be okay. Things will fall off the wall, things will fall off the shelves, but the houses aren't gonna collapse and do things like that. And we'll be back in business really quickly within maybe hours to a few days. But there's debris removal and things. There are other infrastructure, for example, the freeway. Correct. We're gonna be, even though we don't own the freeway, we're gonna have to help get our residents from one side of town to the other. And we've uh put in place these contracts, and we had to have them because FEMA said, boy, if you don't have them ahead of time, you don't do it. But just part of our overall planning, and I think we saw an estimate that we in 30 days, if there was a major fire in the major, we could go through that reserve.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. 41 percent, if you think about it, 41 percent of an operating budget, meaning if something happened and we had zero revenues coming in, that's about five months.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_05Right? So when you think about it and relate it back to your own household um budget, you know, you could have 41 percent of your you know household income scheme.
SPEAKER_00We all should have that display.
SPEAKER_05But it's about half a year, right? So half a year. So in the big scheme of things, for those who might think we are sitting on too much money, I would say it's about half a year's worth of expenditures if all expenditures stayed the same. But in reality, what that operating reserve allows us to do is to rebuild public infrastructure in the event that they collapse as they have had in the past, and front that money so that we can do it while we wait for FEMA's long multi-year process of reimbursing us.
SPEAKER_00And FEMA, you know, they just had a change of that when I was back in Washington, D.C. They were studying it and they wouldn't tell us the answer, but we kind of saw it was coming, is they're cutting 10,000 um workers, and those are the people who normally go to the field, but they're gone. And they've changed the reimbursement rate. It used to be, I think, 25% local, 75%. They want to reverse that, which means if you don't have cash in the bank, there is no real reimbursement by the time. So you have to cover all that cost. Um, but you know, on the same lines, so I think our partners from fire and uh regional agencies, we've learned what those risks might be. And so correspondingly, I think the bottom line is that our reserve is not only for our operations, but it's also for those disasters. And we've tried to balance that. But but this also goes back to partnerships, and I think what's unique is um, and maybe you could talk a little bit about the partners and how do we leverage public dollars, no matter whose dollars they are, how do we do things more cost-effectively, and particularly with our school district on play fields and things like that. Maybe most people don't know that, but maybe explain what it is, how it benefits us and benefits the school.
SPEAKER_05Um happy to do that, and I I'll say that I didn't well, backing up a bit. In my 30 years here, I did have a little bit of a break and left the town to work elsewhere for a little while and then got back. And in that break, I will have to share that it was extraordinary to me. I didn't quite appreciate the partnerships until I left the town the first time, saw the lack of partnerships while I worked for other places, and then I came back and fully appreciated them some more. Uh so first and foremost, I don't think I know a whole lot of other cities that will jointly maintain school parks as an example, right?
SPEAKER_00Which they don't get paid to maintain.
SPEAKER_05Correct.
SPEAKER_00Where our partnership was to will maintain it and we'll help program that and do the maintenance and help run those for them.
SPEAKER_05Yes. Or uh parking lots. Very basic. You don't even think about it, right? Sycamore Valley Park and Sycamore Valley Elementary School both share a parking lot. So why have two separate parking lots when you can have one right adjacent to one another? It doesn't seem like a big deal, but those kinds of daily incremental capital investments magnify over the course of 30 years in a community of this size, is extraordinary. Um let's also talk about, for example, uh school busing. People were extraordinarily expected. You started this program you were talking about.
SPEAKER_00I was there too, but you were the you were the lead on that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so you know, as an example, the school district had, because of limited funding, over the years they cut more and more and more busing to the tremendous agony of many families. Because the state took the money away from it. Because the state took the money away. So the town, leveraging the fact that we were reauthorizing a transportation sales tax measure at the county level, we fought for and secured a revenue stream of that sales tax from the countywide sales tax measure. And so we said, you know what we'll do? This is another creative solution, right? We're going to uh fund the deployment of school buses, not just for the sake of transporting anyone, but also for the sake of uh congestion management. Because we know, for example, in the morning, it is really congested because there is two big transportation uh sources.
SPEAKER_00Because our neighborhood schools that were so congested.
SPEAKER_05Right. So we have commute traffic and we have school commute traffic. So our thought was wow, we're not going to build our way out of congestion, but what if we strip away the school commute part of that congestion? So here's another example of leveraging a regional transportation revenue source now to also solve multiple issues. Transportation for school children, partnership with the school district to completely realign their bell schedule so that we can transport their kids and use that one bus for high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools. And locally, we're solving a congestion problem.
SPEAKER_00Right. We take 1.2 million vehicle trips off of Danville San Ramon uh roads a year because of that program. And I think we now have about 1,500 students. And we have waiting lists on some of those areas.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. And that can't happen without a level of trust between ourselves and the Control Costa Transportation Authority, between our partnership. Another form of a partnership, and ourselves and the school district, who had to quite frankly take a lot of heat for adjusting those bell schedules.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I remember the challenge of um, you know, I moved here almost 40 years ago, and our our children were very young. And I think I mentioned this at the state of the town recently, that there was um a concern that parents didn't let their children go to school by themselves. Kind of regardless of the age. And they're just it w it was about safety and things like that. And now it's totally the opposite. Um everybody lets their kids ride to school and do things, and we didn't think at the time, because we were still back in that era where parents didn't want to let go. And I remember one of the things, and I think you came up with the idea, um, and a former um transportation director, Lisa Bovadilla. You put in the Fourth of July parade one of the new buses recruited a whole bunch of young students, they got on the bus, and after that, it went crazy. Everybody wanted to see they saw their friends on the bus. So genius and a great example of a partner partnership. So I want to go, you know, so partner partnerships has helped us to leveraging resources. So, as we're saying, school district had the land, didn't have the money and maintained it. We needed more park instead of buying land. We made a partnership, we'll maintain it for you, we'll do these things, we'll do the improvements, very cost-effective for both of us. So it helped them and it helped us. Yes. And and and one last thing, we also did it um, particularly at San Ramon Valley High School. There was a terrible parking problem. Yes. And we saw an opportunity to use some of our funds that we were looking at investing in parking, and we made a big difference. They're wholly parked on campus now.
SPEAKER_05Yes, yes. Uh I sometimes we've done so many things you forget about all of them. That was a big one. I I think we were struggling for what would you say, Mayor, uh, at least 30 years with just a proliferation of parking challenges in the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the high school in the downtown. The downtown businesses were struggling with it because now their customers couldn't park and access the business because it's just student parking. And so this is where, from a pragmatic standpoint, the town says, listen, we can commit these capital dollars and we can help you uh physically improve a school site. Now, in other cities, that would be unheard of. It's like, ah, that's a school problem. It's not a it's not a city problem, but we think much more globally and holistically because a school problem for a school in the middle of a downtown is a town problem, right? So because of our ability to look at an issue in a much more global standpoint, I think that's the reason why we're able to do so much.
SPEAKER_00That's you know, I was just thinking back, that's a really example. At the time, we were building lots of parking downtown to try to help compensate. In round number, that was sixty thousand dollars a space because we'd have to buy the land, do the improvement. Well, the school district at San Ramona already owned the property, and for a couple of thousand dollars per space, incredibly cost effective.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00Another partnership, and the school district embraced it, and fortunately parents and students have the benefit of that. And most people don't know it. Doesn't say town of Danville, but it was there.
SPEAKER_05Yes, and then do you remember way back when students had to get up at they were actually in those parking spaces on the street at 6 a.m. because they couldn't find parking elsewhere, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then everybody else had to go into the neighborhoods. Yes, yes. Yeah, so um, you know, again, that that partnership is rare, and um I, you know, I sort of ask other elected and other communities why wouldn't you do it this way? And just recently, Lafayette is um just looking at doing a model of what we did with our veteran community. So the Veterans Building was a building built um um through uh funds that came from a national entity a hundred years ago. The county ended up owning it. Um, but the veterans were stuck with maintaining it, and it really needed a lot of work. And then we created the partnership with them. You stay here, we'll do this. And by the way, we'll we'll build another building and we'll share it, we'll cover the cost, but it allowed the community now having another resource um for holding weddings, meetings, and celebrations and things like that. Um, but just you know, Lafayette, which has a little similarity to what we do in a small way. Um it's glad, I'm I'm really glad because again, it's taxpay it's taxpayer dollars, no matter where they are. How do you leverage those and get those to be at maximum benefit?
SPEAKER_05Correct, correct. And some some of it requires a philosophical approach of not having to own everything, right? Meaning, when I say own, I don't just mean in fee title. I mean this is my project. No one else can help, right? Yeah. And we believe in it takes a village.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_05We believe in and we believe in ah Vets Hall is a perfect example. While we are going to renovate the Vets Hall, it is a perfect opportunity to now deploy and implement something we've always wanted and we've heard from our senior community, which is to add on to it and create a senior center, right?
SPEAKER_00So Which is used every day now, which is great.
SPEAKER_05Which circles back to what we were talking about, uh pay as you go and the patience needed to deploy ideas, right? So I think some of the toughest things to do as an administrator is really to say no to some really great ideas. Only because that's an example of we couldn't do a senior center, right, for a variety of reasons. But, you know, we always store those ideas in the back of our minds. But when that opportunity came, we're like, hey, in addition to just the Vets Hall, let's add on to it, let's build our senior center on the same spot because that is a way we can leverage public dollars.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, you know, it also goes back to um you know the idea of leveraging everything. But um our embracement of technology was just not on the financial side, it was on the security side. We talked with uh Chief Rosberg in the last podcast. And what's been really good is that our community has always supported those.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_00I mean, clearly a lot of the people live here work in tech and technology, and most people that I talk to say, well, of course you're gonna do that. And other communities get restrictions in doing that. So we've been very fortunate to be able to use them for financial management, how we manage, how to leverage, um, and and do those things together. And, you know, we have great leadership under Superintendent uh CJ Comic. His financial um knowledge of knowing this district, having been here seen others, just like you had that opportunity, has come back. Um, you know, we're all under challenges, um, and it's not um, you know, the school budgets are going down, not because anybody's doing anything wrong. They only get paid by the number of students, and they've gone from 34,000 down to 28,000, and it's and it's gonna continue. And the whole state's happening like that. So, our partnerships, I think, have been critical in that. We're always looking for opportunities to share. Yes. But thinking about challenges, we've got just a few minutes left here in today's podcast. Yes. What do you see as the challenges going forward? And I want to go back to that. We talked a little bit, but just in a serious, thoughtful way, what are the challenges that we see coming? And we don't have to necessarily know what the solutions are. What are the things that are going to affect Danville and will they affect the quality of life here?
SPEAKER_05Well, as a person who's a planner by training, uh two things come to mind. First and foremost is the continued erosion of local control by the state of California. Absolutely. Basically creating a situation in which we really can't say no to new housing development.
SPEAKER_00It's unfortunate.
SPEAKER_05It's very unfortunate, right? So what is going to come now will be more housing development, regardless of whether or not the council or its planning commission deems it to be appropriate. So I think our focus now is less about fighting that because there has been zero, no city in California that has successfully been able to challenge that. Correct. So so uh it's about shaping how those housing developments look now. You know, as a planner, I'm hyper interested in making sure that every single new building fits within the fabric of the community. So I think we have a tremendous track record for doing that. If you look at black and white photos of Danville in yesteryear and compare it to today, I think this community, all of its commissions and divide design review boards and councils have done a spectacular job weaving in new components of new buildings into the fabric of our community. The second part is we as a community, because we're viewed by larger entities like the State of California, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, we're not viewed as a city in need. So over the last 10 years, we qualify for fewer and fewer and fewer grants for transportation improvements. How does this impact us? Well, circling back to the discussion about major arterial costing $3.3 million a mile. Well, in the past, we were able to create generate some seed money and attract State and Federal dollars to repave those roadways. Now the town's going to bear the costs of all of those capital improvements and rehabilitation efforts, which means in turn there will be less money for other new projects. So at some point, we're going to have to figure out how best to manage these extraordinary assets we've built over the years. Because there's really, if we're going to build something, we need to maintain it at the highest possible standard, because that's our expectation here in Danville. So two big things on the horizon that I'm constantly noodling on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I agree, particularly on the um, you know, we used to qualify, as you said, for um matching funds and things, and that's how government has kind of worked um forever. But Danville and and a few other cities like us have been excluded from that. Correct. And and what's interesting is the ones who get the most money above and beyond, one city spends $22,000 per resident just for their operating budget. We spend $800. Streets are terrible. I mean, they're just the list is on and on. And when it comes to money, they get the money. And because they somehow meet those criteria. So from uh um, you know, taxes are taxes, they're all paid by the people. There should be some way of having equity on that. And and I ha I hate to say this, but he who has the most money has the worst of everything. There isn't a city that's an exception to that. And it's a sad statement because bigger isn't better. Yes, smaller is leaner, but our standards here in Danville, because of you, the leadership and former city manager and all of our directors and things like that, have made those commitments to figure out. Even back, I remember, and you were here when we were talking about this, the Great Recession comes along. And I remember our our manager and your assistant manager said, you know, looking out the window, things are terrible out there. They're not good here either, but we're going to raise our standards, our service levels, and make sure that government's not the problem, that people know that we're here doing our job. I think that to me is the testament. The scale of our organization, the philosophy allowed us to do that. And we didn't have the complaints because we were we worked twice as hard to make better outcomes. Yes. So that people could focus only on their personal situations to get through those very difficult times.
SPEAKER_05Yes. And uh I would say that what really helps with that is a council that really hears and processes the technical and the staff level analysis and go, ah, I see what you're saying. We may not agree with this, but we agree with this. Go ahead, let's deploy some of these solutions, let's deploy some of these programs. And I think the partnership between the staff and the policymakers over a long run is what allows this community to be what it is today. Danville didn't just happen, right? It was really a product of a long planning process and the practice of making good decisions on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I agree. And it's actually, I'm gonna be honest, it's because of people like you, um, the team that you have in place, and it's been a really good period of time for Danville because I'll go back, I'm gonna be transparent. I got on the council because things weren't well. They were starting to trend. We really focused on the pay as you go attitude, and um we didn't have money for capital, and just within a couple of years, we got back on track, laser focused, and as um I think you mentioned recently, um just a measure of our staff. Without good staff, it's not going to happen. You can have a great council and they can be smart, but we don't do the work. Um but you mentioned, and maybe you can mention it again, uh you mentioned that at one of our council meetings, that Danville was recognized nationally on sort of the the mental health and about what's it like for employees. Maybe you could share that.
SPEAKER_05Yes. Uh we were recently recognized with the Bell Seal of Mental Health, uh awarded to really only 360 employers nationwide. Right. And so that's public and private employers, not just cities. And uh that's very important to us because it is a reflection of the fact that this is a wonderful organization to work for. Uh we focus on nurturing our employees, and as we know, nurtured people nurture other people, right? So we nurture the community because we feel nurtured. And it is a pay-for-type of approach. We invest in our staff from a training perspective. We create learning opportunities, and that in turn attracts the kind of people who want to grow and they see opportunities within the organization. You know, both myself and our former town manager, we're not hyper-focused on, oh, you only do this job if you got a degree in this particular subject matter. We really look for those durable, lasting, resilient skills that are inherent in people, and we don't have a hesitation in moving them from spot to spot. I like to tell new employees that they come in. Well, there is no step method here in this organization, like you enter as an assistant planner and then you go from level A to B to C to D. Instead, what we have here is a zigzagging opportunity so that if you have the desire, the drive, the will, and the capacity, we will move you into positions of growth, whatever you would like to do when the opportunities present themselves. And I would say that our current assistant town manager is an example of that because you might remember he joined the town as a code enforcement officer part-time. I was half-time in those days. Yeah, and then he moved on to maintenance as the uh superintendent, right? The number two person, ultimately became the director, and now he's the assistant town manager. So it's a perfect example of how we like to grow our own talent.
SPEAKER_00And no tech background in his case, developed the Danville app at Danville Connect. So well, Ty, I just want to say thank you. Thank you from behalf of the council and the community and as a fellow resident. Um, and by the way, you'll see Ty probably jockey jogging around the community, working for a marathon or a half marathon. Um, it's been a pleasure all these years to work with you. I look forward for all the years and the success that you're building. And thanks. And please pass on to all the staff and everything how much the community and the council really appreciates everything all of you do to make this the best community.
SPEAKER_05Well, thank you, Mary. It's an extraordinary honor to serve this community, not only as a resident, but as really a part of this organization that can't happen without the support of the council.
SPEAKER_00Outstanding. Thank you.