By Donna Lind, Mayor, City of Scotts Valley
As we look forward to recovery, the City of Scotts Valley has begun work on strategic planning to help business and other aspects of our community.
Photo Credit: Donna Lind
For many years, the City has kept the same four strategic goals:
- Ensure long-term financial stability
- Encourage business development and expand the City’s economic base
- Implement operational initiatives to enhance city services
- Maintain quality of life for residents
This year, with a new City Manager and as we rebuild after the pandemic, City Council has held two public study sessions to discuss how City resources should be focused to help meet these goals.
The City of Scotts Valley’s budget depends on sales tax. Scotts Valley receives a very low percentage (6½%) of property taxes, about half the amount received by other jurisdictions in the County. Although local residents passed Measure Z providing an additional 1¼ % sales tax, the pandemic struck 2 weeks later. Due to health concerns, many businesses were forced to close or saw a severe reduction of business. When business suffers, City finances suffer as well.
The Scotts Valley COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force was formed to support and assist local businesses. This task force included a partnership with the City, Chamber of Commerce and local business owners. The Task Force worked to provide information and resources to local businesses like masks, sanitizer, signs and the latest CDC and CDPH guidelines for various types of businesses. Due to the work of the Economic Recovery Task Force, the community voted the Task Force the Organization of the Year at the upcoming Scotts Valley Chamber Award Gala. The Scotts Valley Chamber Gala will be May 6 at Roaring Camp.
The City also formed an Economic Recovery Subcommittee led by Councilmembers Randy Johnson and Derek Timm. The City applied for and received a grant through the Community Development Block Grant – Coronavirus program to provide relief to local businesses.
Park Volunteer Day • Photo Credit: Greg Wimp
The City was awarded $395,000 in CDBG-CV grant funding by the California Department of Housing and Community Development. City Council approved a spending plan that included assigning a portion of the grant funds in support of the Boys and Girls Club’s childcare services for the 2021-22 school year, while dedicating $250,000 in CDBG-CV funding for grants to eligible Scotts Valley businesses.
As a result of the adopted spending plan, and as approved by HCD, the City’s Economic Recovery Subcommittee undertook the role of administering the small business grant program, including designing program guidelines that aligned with all CDBG-CV and/or CARES Act rules.
The funding source included strict eligibility criteria, with an aim to support businesses that were owned by, or employed, individuals earning a low or moderate income as defined CDBG-CV criteria and other criteria. As the Subcommittee moved through the process with more than 60 businesses expressing interest, nine eligible businesses successfully completed the process.
Grant Awards
- Building Kids $50,000
- Faust Salon $50,000
- Hillside Cleaners $7,500
- Idlewild Tattoo Parlour $5,000
- Irish Eyes Beauty $12,500
- Limelight Home Staging $15,000
- Scotts Valley Veterinary Clinic $50,000
- The Redwood Sandwich Co. $50,000
- Togo’s $10,000
While these CDBG-CV grants will help some small businesses in Scotts Valley, the Economic Recovery Subcommittee recognizes the strict rules of the grant program had a limited reach in the business community. Further, the Subcommittee recognized Scotts Valley businesses will need additional support from the City as the regional economy continues to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. This may come in many ways including exploring new/different financial support through state, federal, or other funding sources, and/or through partnerships with private corporations, nonprofits, and/or academic institutions.
When the pandemic hit, the City was forced to lay off several positions including the Parks & Recreation Division. As employees retired or moved from the area, positions were left vacant due to financial uncertainty. We recognize staffing cuts, although necessary at the time, resulted in reduced City services and we’re working to correct that.
With community support, the work of the Economic Recovery Task Force and particularly Measure Z, we’re recovering faster than expected. City Manager LaGoe is leading much overdue investments in technology to improve efficiency in City operations, while refilling key staff positions as finances allow.
Regarding quality of life for residents, in the 2021-22 budget we focused on rebuilding the Police Department. Thanks to recruitment efforts of Chief Steve Walpole and staff, the Department is close to returning to fully staffed. We’ve been able to return an officer to school campuses with grant funding. Officer Pat Ahrens recently completed the DARE program in each of our local schools with over 200 students graduating.
As a result of our study sessions, staff are developing the budget for 2022-23 with a greater focus on parks maintenance and improvements as we recognize our parks and open space as a great asset to our community and lifestyle.
The Park Volunteer Day was a great success, with much thanks to community support! Through a contract for landscaping services, the City will be able to build upon that effort to further improve the esthetics of our parks.
We’re not waiting until July when the new budget starts to address parks issues. New mulch was added to all playgrounds to make them safer and more attractive. We submitted a request for community initiative funding to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo to replace the playground equipment for kids 5-12 at Skypark. We received Prop. 68 funds to replace the structure for preschoolers.
We want to thank the community for the strong support for our first Community Park Clean Up Day. There is interest in rebuilding the Park Advocates as a separate 501c (3) nonprofit to continue the work that organization did.
We welcome your input on any of these topics as Scotts Valley continues to rebuild.
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Feel free to contact me, Mayor Donna Lind, at dlindslind@earthlink.net, or City Manager Mali LaGoe at mlagoe@scottsvalley.org