By Larry Caballero
La Palma Mayor Ralph Rodriguez thanked the Chamber of Commerce for hosting the State of the City Address Apr. 21 at the La Palma Community Center. He stated sales tax generates 32.4% of the City’s revenues, and La Palma is 188 of the 538 cities in the state of California in sales tax per capita generated. Rodriguez is proud of corporate support for City projects and events from La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, Southern California Edison, EDCO Waste and Recycling Services and others.
“We have great schools,” said Rodriguez, “all of our elementary schools are California Distinguished Schools with high test scores We partner with these schools by offering scholarships, improving a pedestrian crossing at Kennedy High and Walker Junior High, funding crossing guards at all of the public schools, and support for numerous campus events.”
The City is also proud of its Police Interacting with Youth (PIY) program; Fit n’ Fun, an after school fitness program; and its goal of meeting with every school to discuss improving traffic and pedestrian safety.
He said the city is responding to the economy. “Our Permit Fee Holiday has saved our residents more than $70,000 in fees waived, and we maintained or lowered all user fees in 2010.”
The City authorized $235,900 of reserves to keep the Utility User’s Tax reduced to 4% in three of the last four years while keeping the General Fund Reserves at 140% of annual ongoing operating expenditures “with no cuts in services, no lay offs, and no furloughs,” said Rodriguez.
Fiscal year 2010-2011 total budget revenues were $25,002,450 and budget expenses were $27,953,661. This $2 million dollar shortfall was due to several long-term capital projects that were fully funded by water and sewer enterprise reserves, but the City’s goal for 2011-12 is to balance the operating budget without use of reserves.
At the same time, the City will be entering 2011 labor negotiations. Rodriguez said, “Our employees are the key reason we are able to provide high quality service to our residents and businesses, and we fully expect to partner with our employees to face our financial challenges together.”
Rodriguez is pleased with the City’s own police department that handled 29,144 calls for service last year while total crime is down .05% and violent crimes are down 55%. Only property crimes showed an increase of 4.5%.
“We’re working to improve those numbers by implementing Real Time Crime Maps on the City website and on Mobile Biometric ID and Digital Citations Systems.”
La Palma has the county’s fastest response time at 2:36 minutes while the county’s average is 5:38 minutes.
La Palma has completed or is working on several beautification projects that included arterial block wall repair & painting, street sign replacement and a utility underground project. The City is also working with Centerpointe to fully occupy the site, reviewing the option of a University of Phoenix campus and planning for the opening of a Super 1 Mart in Sept.
“We are proud of our little city that continues to do big things,” said Rodriguez. “Our 30th Annual Run For Fun set records, our summer Concerts in the Park are filling to capacity, and we welcome everyone to attend our La Palma Days celebration, Halloween Carnival at Central Park, Holiday Tree Lighting and Memorial Day event.”
The city’s has a diverse population of 15,719 that includes 44.9% Asian and Pacific Islander, 17.4% Korean, in a 1.9 square mile radius in north Orange County, and with a median household income of $80K.
More than 70% of its residents have some college or advanced degree, and 65% are between the ages of 15-59—a demographic that Rodriguez said businesses like to see because this is the population that tends to consume more products.
Rodriguez said that there is a great business climate in La Palma with many businesses choosing the City as their home including BP America, ADP, Unisource, Rosendin Electric and Multi-Sales Company, adding that many of the businesses are located in the City’s multi-office complex center named Centerpointe.
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