The Sandpiper

As a former oncologist, turned Public Health and Preventive Medicine physician, teaching and working on health care policy matters, and entrepreneur of 20 years, like many I believe than “one ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. That is even more true for financial and economic matters, and in these dreary times we have to apply preventive measures in an entrepreneurial and creative way…a new “Del Mar way” adapted to our times which most of us can subscribe to and deliver on.

The $3.8 million three-year loan the City recently secured to be able to meet the purchasing terms of the acquisition of the Shores property is simply buying the City some time, at an additional debt service cost, to assume this new multi-million debt.

The task at hand now is not to add more debt to our balance sheet, but to raise more revenue while monitoring and cutting unnecessary expenses. Simply put, the charter of the time for the new Council and the Community at large is to responsibly take control of our City’s destiny with strict fiscal discipline in order to best weather the severe economic storm which is taking the entire country. Drastically falling sales tax, weak TOT revenue, more retail stores closing in our downtown require swift reactive and preventive action. Here are some of the City’s Finance Committee recommendations:

On the revenue side:

Support as quickly as possible downtown redevelopment. There is no time to wait for a long 2-year-plus Specific Plan process, at a high tax payer cost and which may not allow individual property owners to develop their properties in an economically feasible manner. We all can and must come to the necessary zoning changes, to esthetically revive our downtown within months and not years. On January 12, a joint meeting of the City Council and Finance Committee (FC) will present two concrete approaches to get the job done, and let’s all rally behind the most cost-effective solution.

With the potential TOT increase now allowed by the public vote, let’s apply any increase authorized by the Council to mainly pay for downtown revitalization.
Let’s not sit any longer on the now two-plus year old parking plan the FC developed to generate over $2 million in revenue, and at a bare minimum let’s offer on a voluntary basis the City-wide paid parking permit we advised for free parking in metered places and additional allowed parking time limits in the downtown.

On the expense side:

Let’s support and encourage our staff and Council for the City to be more cost-effective in delivering the public services we need: streamlining administrative processes, cutting down on unnecessary/redundant public meetings, and using consultant services parsimoniously.

Let’s periodically review, prioritize and determine the “just price” of large capital infrastructure projects, whether it’s the new lifeguard center or a sidewalk project.
Applying for new infrastructure State bonds and new Federal grants for the right project at the right place: i.e. for streetscape in our downtown.

With the economic crisis we are all living as a nation, let’s all rise to the occasion to seize a real opportunity to revive our City.

FAIR SHARE
November 2008 | Editorial

Del Mar has worked very diligently for decades to build a community that we proudly enjoy and is widely admired in the region and around the state. Our tiny population of 4,000+ has achieved a nice balance of beaches, parks, neighborhoods, environment, and business. Every year, literally millions of visitors are welcomed here to enjoy our community with us.

Creating this kind of community environment is not without cost. Our City Councils have done a remarkable job over the decades of managing our resources prudently, but with our appetite for continuous improvement, our financial challenges are greater than ever. The citizens of Del Mar shoulder a disproportionate share of this financial burden.

Our many visitors enjoy the benefits but pay very little of the costs associated with those benefits. Visitors certainly would not be attracted to our town if we were not paying for lifeguarding, fire protection, traffic control, law enforcement, street repair, sewer and water, beautification, environmental protection, and public works.

One of our main sources of revenue is the Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT) which is paid by hotel visitors for every night they stay. Our current rate is 10.5%. Most other cities in the region and state are assessing TOT at 13%.

Our Council has placed a proposition on the ballot that would allow them to raise the TOT rate to 13%, comparable to other cities. We think this a reasonable way to ask visitors to pay their fair share of our city costs.

We urge you to consider Proposition H very carefully and see if you agree with our conclusion to support getting a fair share from visitors.

It’s All About Process
October 2008 | Editorial

The process of public transparency and clarity of purpose expected of corporate executives and civic officials is recently a recurring theme in the news. Whether it is the transparency of operations within Wall Street firms or clarity of the political positions of our presidential candidates, the point is the same. As a nation or a community, as citizens or residents, we want to be involved in the process of the open discussion and decision-making that directly affect our lives.

Two recent Del Mar issues, the Garden Del Mar project and the proposed increase in the TOT (both on the ballot for community voter approval in November) have brought to light how important that process is to Del Mar residents.

In the case of the Garden project, the selection of Exceptional Public Benefits (EPB’s) by the Council to allow the developer to exceed zoning floor area ratios were negotiated by a Council sub-committee. That process nearly killed the project. The Council's decision process on the EPB's failed to involve its own appointed citizen committee. These citizens had to pull the Council back into reconsidering the EPB's. The result of more public involvement was an increase in EPB’s. The bottom line is that more involvement probably increases the chance that the project will win voter approval.

Again, within weeks of the Garden Del Mar issue, the City Council moved hastily with the discussion of the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) – to benefit the city with an increase of annual funds from the TOT and to keep a verbal agreement to work with the Del Mar Village Association. The city’s hoteliers proposed a Transient Marketing District (TMD) that would fund marketing efforts to increase visitor traffic – but this was not based upon input of the entire community. Now the TOT has met stiff community resistance with the existing TMD tethered to it in any form.

Within these issues is the lesson that Del Mar, as a community, was founded on a process of resident involvement that requires transparency and clarity with all issues, small and large. When the City Council or the city management work in isolation and haste to meet compressed deadlines or in fear of financial loss, they risk circumventing the most important part of the Del Mar process - full resident input. They also risk unduly raising community anxieties that the City Council, as representative of the community, is compromising the Community Plan with approvals and ordinances that have crevices; crevices that would allow an opportunist to challenge the intent of these approvals and ordinances with actions that would negatively impact Del Mar for many years in the future, if not permanently. This is not acceptable.

For Del Mar, in all areas of community planning and city management, full process of community input trumps the best intentions of decisions made in isolation and haste. The present City Council and future City Councils would be well served to keep this in mind if they want to avoid the risk of repeating the contentious resident reactions of this past summer.

Economic Downturn Hits City Revenue
October 2008 | by Bettina Experton | Opinion

It was springtime when the City took the bold step of issuing a $3.5 million promissory note to allow the acquisition of the Shores property, when fundraising fell almost half way short of its goal.

With Fall, reality is now before us when the City makes its first $500,000 monthly payment on that note. Because these payments are way beyond the means of our small community, the City had to secure a new multi-million dollar commercial line of credit. The City will also draw from that credit line to pay for the very large capital expenditures we are now facing with the needed replacement of an aging infrastructure.

“Faced with this new and major financial risk occurring at a time of an economic downturn, our small and financially stressed community needs more than ever bold leadership and fiscal discipline from its Council, and with it, wide support from the community” These were my words in the Sandpiper in May), but the time is now beyond words and for immediate action, as facts and figures will hopefully convince the incredulous.

Indeed, from the collapse of the nation’s financial system to the distress of the State budget, our small town is, by itself, posting more than ever weakening revenues. Here are the City latest estimates regarding our three largest revenue sources (final end of fiscal year revenues will not be available until mid-December):

Sales taxes are 15% down from last fiscal year.
Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) is 28 percent lower, and the losses are $200K over what had been estimated as a result of the closing of l'Auberge.
Property taxes remain steady.

Exercising our civic duties in the upcoming elections - and beyond - we all can indeed help reverse the trend by:

Authorizing the City Council to increase the TOT up to the surrounding communities’ TOT level; then direct the increased revenue to address the fiscal priorities of the town, such as building its downtown infrastructure (streetscape, etc…)
Immediately supporting necessary zoning changes (e.g., FAR, height limit) in the commercial zone to support a vibrant downtown and secure the independence of our small city. Our community cannot afford, and will not survive, a 3-year specific plan process with endless public meetings.
Leasing the City Hall site ($1M+ annual revenue) that will allow the needed development of the South gateway of our town with a resident-serving mixed-use project
Supporting the Finance Committee recommended parking program (potential $2M+ revenue) with its public parking permit program, which could be made available right away for everyone’s convenience and the City’s fiscal health.

Now is indeed the time to act. Let’s all seize today’s crisis as the opportunity of our time.

Dr. Bettina Experton is Chair of the Del Mar Finance Committee.

Race Offers Unique Opportunity
September 2008 | Editorial

Three Council vacancies and three candidates could add up to an election season that gives us some relief from the campaign nastiness that has marked the last few local elections. We see this as an opportunity to re-tool the way we connect voters to our elected officials.

We urge the three candidates to seize this unique opportunity by engaging in a series of mature conversations with voters about today's significant issues and strategic considerations about Del Mar's long-term future. Instead of campaign slogans and invidious comparisons among rivals, these three candidates should set a new standard of respectful exchange of ideas and proposals among themselves and with voters.

Over the next two months, the Sandpiper will ask the candidates to respond to a series of questions about current and long-range issues. Beyond that, we urge the candidates to campaign actively on these issues with door-to-door visits and neighborhood coffees. Absent the rancor of previous campaigns, our new council members could enter office better prepared for undertaking their new roles and with a greater sense of what citizens expect of them.

As citizens, we must also take the time to tune in to the issues and to the difficult choices that will shape our future as a community.

If the election campaign unfolds as we envision it, the experience of engaging in a constructive process of focusing on issues could set a higher standard for future competitive election campaigns.

YES = Clean Water + Balanced Budget
August 2008 | Editorial

This week the City of Del Mar is distributing a ballot package by mail to all Del Mar property owners and water customers. On this ballot are two important questions. The first question asks for a yes or no vote to ratify the City's clean-water charge that appeared on all water bills beginning in 2004. The second question asks for a yes or no vote to increase the amount of the clean water charge, beginning July, 2009. We urge you to vote YES on both questions and to return the completed ballots by the September 15 deadline. Every vote will count in this election.

A vote YES on both ballot questions is a vote for clean water and a balanced City budget.

Why is this mailed ballot election necessary? Simply, the first ballot question arises because of uncertainty over procedural requirements for new or increased fees and charges under Proposition 218 approved by California voters in 1996. The City of Del Mar followed the widely held interpretation of these procedures in 2003 with its first clean-water charge. But a 2006 decision by the California Supreme Court overruled that interpretation, thus necessitating this mailed ballot election to ratify the City's earlier action.

The second ballot question arises because of increasing requirements imposed by the State, acting under the federal Clean Water Act, on ALL local governments. Under these new requirements, local governments must take further steps to reduce pollution into our streams, lagoons and beaches from storm drain runoff.

The City has no choice but to comply with the State's unfunded mandate. But doing so will substantially increase the program costs – by an estimated $100,000 annually – not including indirect overhead costs. Voting no on this question will not mean Del Mar can avoid these additional costs – the money will have to come from other thinly stretched programs and services. We believe the proposed 2009 increase in the clean-water charge is both reasonable and necessary.

(The federal Clean Water Act, first approved by Congress in 1972, has succeeded in cleaning up our lakes, rivers and streams. Initially, the program required point source polluters – factories, businesses and sewer plants – to stop discharging polluting materials into the nation's waterways and to start using “best practices” to prevent further pollution. Additionally municipal storm drain systems carry storm water and irrigation runoff containing major pollutants from our streets and homes to our beaches and lagoons. In 1987, Congress mandated local governments to begin reducing storm drain pollution - but did not provide financial assistance.)

The federal and State governments contend it is local government's responsibility to clean up its own (municipal storm drain) act. We believe Del Mar's clean-water charge is a fair price to pay for reducing pollution runoff from our streets and homes.

Out of the Garden, Into the Heat
August 2008 | by Art Olson

A hastily assembled special meeting of the Gas Station Site Steering Committee on July 24, following City Council's deliberations on the Garden Del Mar Project's Specific Plan, though heated at times, has hopefully brought a more reasoned perspective to the efforts to move the Plan to a November vote. The meeting was precipitated by the e-mail withdrawal of the project by Bryn Stroyke, the developer, who cast blame on remarks regarding the Exceptional Public Benefits (EPBs) made by individual members of the Steering Committee at the Council Meeting on 21 July.

The purpose of the special meeting, according to Council sub-committee, Dave Druker and Richard Ernest, was to explain the differences between the EPBs they brought before the Council, and those recommended by the Steering Committee. It was those differences that prompted Deborah Groban, Brooke Eisenberg-Pike, and me to make our remarks at the council meeting.

Discussion between the Council members and the Committee at the special meeting centered on the EPBs and ideas that could bring the Committee and Council closer to agreement on what might be appropriately proposed to the developers.

With over 30 members of the community present there was no absence of public input, and, in my view, several misconceptions propagated through the discussion. All of the public comments at the meeting expressed strong support for the project, but most argued for formal endorsement from the Committee. Several implied that our comments at Monday's Council meeting were intended to derail the project and that we would be to blame if the project does not go forward.

In fact, the Steering Committee was tasked to facilitate community input to the Specific Plan process as dictated by Measure B. We were not formed as a deliberative body, and were assured that indeed it was not our role as a Committee to endorse the final plan. In the 60 or so meetings that we conducted, it is on record that all of our discussions leading to our recommendations were motivated to create a Specific Plan that appeals to the largest cross-section of Del Mar voters. We operated knowing that it is the City Council's role to negotiate and decide the final form of the Specific Plan, including the EPBs. Also on record is the Committee's statement of our rights to express or withhold our individual opinions.

By meeting's end, the Committee and Council liaisons agreed on revised EPBs that they felt would help put the Garden back on the path to a November vote:

1) The same $25/month condo fee designated for affordable housing program but instead of fee's in perpetuity, fees for 30 years. Designated use of fees reviewed at year 20.

2) A percentage of total revenue generated from the sales and other income from the property to the developers with both the percentage and a floor and ceiling amount negotiated between the City Council Subcommittee and the developers. The funds from this EPB would be designated for park improvements.

Limits to Growth
July 2008 | A Guest Editorial by John Kerridge

“What is the Water Authority's estimate on the limits to growth in our region?”

Councilmember Henry Abarbanel asked this question at a recent city council meeting. He got no reply, but his inquiry cut to the heart of a fundamental regional issue, and it behooves us to ponder it further.

First, we need to recognize that, with a few honorable exceptions, our neighboring communities have conspicuously failed even to entertain the idea that growth might, in fact, have limits outside of their control. For many years, most communities in the region have routinely approved large-scale development projects without questioning whether the infrastructure is adequate to support them.

“Infrastructure” here means primarily the availability of water and power, but also provision of appropriate facilities for transportation, education, and sewage treatment. In principle, the latter issues are resolvable by taxpayers and their elected representatives having the guts to make budgetary decisions that are unpopular in the short term but that will reap long-term regional benefits. But satisfying our needs for water and power will require a whole different kind of community commitment, and a whole different degree of tax-payer angst.

For both water and power, the financial and societal costs of adequately increasing supply are enormous, verging on prohibitive. Water supply to our area is controlled by climatic and geographical factors that do not favor us. It would be insane to assume that sometime soon they will change for the better. The limits on power supply are more subtle, dominated by its side effects, ranging from undesirable to lethal, but all of them expensive.

These limits, natural, technical and political, are sufficiently complex and uncertain that only a fool would assume that by ignoring them they would disappear. Unfortunately, foolish decisions are not uncommon, and most of them have the effect of increasing demand without guaranteeing supply. This is a sure-fire formula for disaster.

We will only avoid that disaster if communities throughout the region get together at a grass-roots level to apply unremitting pressure on elected bodies that otherwise are only too happy to dismiss the concerns of neighboring jurisdictions. But they must be made to face the fact that a development approval in one jurisdiction can negatively impact its neighbors' infrastructure as well as its own.

We live in an era of limits. Ignoring them will not make them go away, but may well result in our departure from the scene.

John Kerridge is Editor Emeritus of the Sandpiper.

A Vision Challenge for Del Mar
June 2008 | by Sam Borgese

Is the Del Mar community really coalesced around a unified vision? Do we share a vivid description of a desired outcome of our efforts in creating and governing our City? Are all of our efforts being expended towards the same mental picture of how we see our community's role in our village, and in the world?

Certainly I can testify that many of us, as residents, become emotionally charged when we believe our individual visions of Del Mar are threatened. There is no shortage of stories and differences of opinion on many public-governance issues. However, are we emotionally charged with the substance of a vision or the details of its objectives?

In fact, I do believe, Del Mar has a vision -- a vision that was crafted with words and action by its founders. However, I also believe this vision has blurred and lost its clarity in the years since incorporation and creation of the Community Plan.

Certainly the original vision has been confronted by rapid growth in the surrounding area. Where once Del Mar stood as a small village surrounded by ocean to the west, a small town to the north and vast open space to the east and south, it now appears that only Torrey Pines State Reserve protects Del Mar from becoming just one in a continuous series of communities from the Mexican border to Camp Pendleton and from the ocean to Scripps Ranch.

Perhaps it is time to reconnect with our beginning, to renew our vision and to bring that vision to reality. Perhaps we should dare to build upon our founders' vision with a renewed vision of something even better -- a vision that will inspire, and stimulate our creativity about how we participate together as a community, as a regional neighbor and in the world in general.

If we set aside our fears as did the founders of Del Mar nearly 50 years ago, then perhaps we can honor them and ourselves by coalescing around a renewed vision -- one that stands as an example to ourselves and other communities of the extraordinary results that evolve from a clarity of vision, firmly set objectives and continuity of action.

Let's explore this possibility together over a series of articles as we trace our founding vision to the challenges that vision faces today.

Change is Seldom Comfortable
June 2008 | a guest editorial by Richard Earnest

It is that time of year again for the city as we take up the task of examining budget proposals and deciding how Del Mar will deliver services and capital improvements to the residents over the next two years.

We will be doing this in a very different environment than the last several. The economic environment is much more tenuous. The state budget has a massive potential deficit and the appetite to tap local governments to alleviate their problems. The projects and ideas related to improving the quality of life in Del Mar are impressive, costly and growing. In addition, unfunded mandates from Sacramento such as the Clean Water requirements are growing and place additional demand on general fund capacity. It is within this set of conditions that your city council and staff must prioritize as never before. With your input, I am certain that we will successfully grapple with these challenges but hard choices will have to be made. Thanks to a lively, engaged and intelligent community, we all have our favorite project or cause. Not everyone will get their way. Projects will move up and down the priority chain depending on what is best for the community as a whole. Some things will have to be delayed. Some may be cancelled outright in favor of more critical needs. I am sure that not everyone will be happy with the outcome.

New sources of revenue are going to be explored as well as additional ways to get more out of each dollar we collect. We are open to any suggestion or idea as to how to do things better. However, we can't have it all. At least we can't have it all right now. Del Mar is in better shape fiscally than many of our sister cities in the region. On the other hand we have some unique fiscal demands on our resources, such as our beaches, that don't exist elsewhere.

I think that this council is committed to protecting the quality of life in Del Mar for the long term, in spite of the challenges we face. This will require different thinking and new ways of problem solving than we are familiar with. It won't be comfortable for some but change is seldom comfortable. We have a choice: We can manage the changes going on around us and how they affect our quality of life or we can be managed by them. Ignoring them is not an option.

Richard Earnest is a city council member.

A Guest Editorial
May 2008 | by Sam Borgese

I can't resist commenting about the many anxious voices responding to the assumed collapsing financial condition of Del Mar and the “call to arms” to save the village business area with new zoning, parking ordinance and the general rush to develop. So, I (and I suggest every resident do the same) read the recently published Revitalization Plan for the City of Del Mar by The Community Land Use and Economics Group.

The study is rich with fresh facts about who lives in and visits Del Mar, how the residents and visitors feel about Del Mar and what they would like to see or not see Del Mar present to them. The richness of the facts is compelling. Del Mar is truly the gem that we protect with a passion. This gem often generates boisterous and contentious argument over how it should be cared for and protected.

Yet as I read the CLUE report, I found the most compelling statements to be quotes lifted from already established City development guidance documents:

1976: Community Plan - “… Del Mar's business community should better serve local needs for goods and services and become a pedestrian-oriented compact center”; “…automobile traffic should not pose a hazard to life, should not intrude on the tranquility of the community life, nor should it interfere with walkers and bicycle riders”.

1982: Del Mar 2000 - “…The Del Mar 2000 program…represents a significant step forward into another area of environmental opportunity. This opportunity lies in the largely untapped potential of the Del Mar Commercial district and how it can be developed to create a functional and symbolic center for the entire community”; “ … to create an intimately scaled urban experience around an active, vital, and pedestrian oriented downtown”.

The CLUE report does have lots of “voids” and “sales leakage” data. It is also comforting to read that not much has changed over the 35 years since I became a resident. People still come to Del Mar to walk on the beach and dine in the village restaurants; village residents still want a pharmacy and a hardware store; and, only a handful of people own most of the commercial property.

The best sections of the Clue report are the recommended solutions for existing Del Mar businesses to think outside their own store-front box and the sections that list examples of unique businesses such as the custom musical-instrument shop, the quill pen shop that ships quills to the US Congress, the do-it-yourself dog wash or the restaurant that also houses a bookstore.

While we wring our hands over what to do next, I suggest we get busy doing what we know already needs to be done. Encourage residents and others to invest themselves and their resources to create the virtue of the village -- the honest expression of who we are as Del Mar residents and what we want people to experience when they visit. Done responsibly, the rest will follow suit. This virtue is in our village DNA, just read the Community Plan or Del Mar 2000.

Investing in our Future
April 2008

Our generation's open space challenge is in a crunch time, but acquisition of the five-acre Shores school site for a community park is more than half way to its $8.5 million goal. Donors to date total 186 and ten pledges, many of these from the Winston School community. Now the entire community needs to join in.

Consider some math to decide what level of giving is appropriate. If one's net worth, all your assets minus your debts, is $1 million, a one-half percent contribution is $5,000; a net worth of $5 million is a $25,000 donation.

The open-space acquisitions of the past, Crest and Anderson Canyons, Seagrove and Powerhouse Parks, define our community and contribute to the values of our houses. The Shores site will surely have the same payoff.

There are over 2,000 households in Del Mar. If only 100 gave $20,000 each, we will be halfway home; another 200 at $10,000 each, we will hit the goal.

Consider how much we spend for cars, maybe as little as $20-25 thousand for a 3-5 year investment. The Shores park is a lifetime, generation-jumping investment. Consider the value of this gift to three and more generations of friends and relatives – it's way more than an automobile.

Dig deep. We can do it, Del Mar. more>>

Del Mar's Human Resources
March 2008

Our community lost an extraordinary leader when Jerry Finnell left us. Much has been said about Jerry's rich biography and there is even more to learn from Jerry and Kathy's model of civic patriotism. When they retired to Del Mar they hit the ground running with civic involvement. They chose Del Mar because they loved it and made a commitment to work to preserve the qualities that attracted them. No committee, no volunteer activity, no organizing work was beneath them. They dug in, worked tirelessly with good humor, and did not seek out the limelight—no big heads for them. Ironically, it was those self-effacing qualities that attracted others to their leadership capabilities and ultimately to leadership roles, including Jerry's mayoral election.

In our view, Jerry's most enduring legacy to us all will be this model of civic activism. Del Mar has achieved its distinctive reputation, not because of its natural resources, but because of its human resources—hundreds of citizens who have worked to protect those natural resources and a quality of life that is very rare in today's world. Jerry was in the top tier of our community's human resources.

Unity in the Community
February 2008

The Shores campaign is an opportunity for all of us to come together as a community to add to our wonderful legacy of generation-bridging assets. Previous generations of Del Marians have proven to be far-sighted and generous in preserving community assets. We now enjoy our parks, library, lagoon, canyons, and open space because they seized opportunities to shape the future. Del Mar's reputation as a desirable place to live is built upon our fine balance of man-made and natural resources.

Adding five acres of recreation, education, and open space to our inventory will be a powerful message about our core values to our children and grandchildren. Our vision is that every single household will communicate its good-will involvement in this community-building endeavor. Contributions at all levels will be valued equally. This is our generation's opportunity to shape Del Mar's future. Time is short. Please add your voice to all of your neighbors with a generous contribution this month.

Balance needed to Reduce Fire Risk
December 2007

Del Mar can count itself lucky to have escaped, twice within four years, the ravages of burning canyons and homes. Next time (there will be a next time) we may not be so lucky.

That's why Del Mar needs a determined and continuing effort to reduce wildfire threat to lives and property. Such an effort must also balance the needs of fire safety with preserving Del Mar's unique and irreplaceable natural beauty. With prudent and determined management, that balance can be achieved.

Responding to citizen demands, the City Council appointed a committee of Dave Druker and Richard Earnest to study issues and submit recommendations. But the Council's initial focus seems fixed on establishing a fire-safety abatement district and asking voters to approve an assessment on the June ballot.

Perhaps additional revenues are needed to support our fire department; that issue clearly deserves attention. But there are existing tools at hand the City can begin using now to reduce wildfire risks and improve urban forest management, without waiting for an election.

Although it could use an update, the Municipal Code already provides ample authority under State law for inspection and removal of fire hazards on private property. Building on the Fire Department's current practice of conducting inspections at the owner's request, this ordinance can be used to begin a regular cycle of inspections that, given the availability of personnel, would cover the entire City every few years. Areas of highest risk should be covered first. Such a program should be included among the Fire Department's ongoing responsibilities, with progress monitored as part of the annual budget review. The City should provide residents with clear descriptions of common fire hazards and the means for removing them, along with an explanation of the inspection program.

An ongoing fire-inspection program is only part of a well-balanced effort to reduce risks from wildfire. Another important element is the Urban Forest Management and Fire Safety Strategic Plan approved by the City Council in 1999. The Plan includes important recommendations for achieving carefully balanced goals of maintaining our existing tree forest in a safe and healthy condition and improving fire safety in our canyons and public open spaces.

Only two of the Plan's recommendations have been implemented by the City. The water system along the edge of Crest Canyon has been upgraded to provide greater fire suppression capability, and the City undertook reduction of unsafe fuel loads in Crest Canyon with FEMA assistance. The City Council should conduct public workshops at an early date to educate the public and promote the Plan, review recommendations, set priorities and organize further action. All residents are encouraged to review the plan available in the Library and online at the City's website. ( City of Del Mar Home Page; Popular Sections; City Planning Documents, scroll to bottom.)

For these programs to be successful they must be given high priority by the City Council. Those delegated the authority to carry them out must be accountable. The efforts must be on-going, not sporadic or seasonal. The greatest hurdle to overcome is not the lack of funds, nor the means and ability to implement these programs, but finding the political will and developing the community consensus needed to sustain these programs long after the lessons from this recent experience fade from memory.