Livermore Mayor's State of the City Town Hall

Livermore Public Library, Wednesday September 25th.

In his second annual Town Hall State of the City Address, Mayor John Marchand's focus was largely on Increasing Tax Revenue though Encouraging Business. In it, the Mayor touted the City Government's successes in bringing in new business and its continuing efforts in that direction.

The Mayor noted that in 2008, the tax revenue for the city was approximately $85 Million and has since dropped to approximately $74 Million with large hits in both Property and Sales Tax revenue.

However, through such enterprises as the Livermore Premium Outlet Mall recently opened, which created some 2,000 jobs, the downward trend in Tax Revenue has been stabilized. The Outlet Mall, where the Mayor described shopping as “A Contact Sport” is also slated to expand substantially.

“I haven't been to Stoneridge Mall in six years,” said the Mayor, who seems to have no plans on going any time soon.

Marchand amused his audience describing how, after mailboxes in his neighbourhood had been tagged, he set off to clean them. Police photographing the tagged boxes informed him that there were calls reporting an old white guy out tagging mailboxes that morning. True to his message, he held up a spray-bottle of TCW, (This Stuff Works) the local product he used to clean the graffiti.

The Mayor also repeated more than once the notion that Livermore Residents should “Buy Local” in order to support such things as infrastructure maintenance through sales tax revenue.

But the mayor very proudly spoke of technology companies that exist in Livermore, including a pair of companies in the 3D Printing Industry, and the hope of more to come. He used this as a segue to speak of BART and the plan to build a station at Isabel Avenue near Intestate 580, and another station at Greenville Road half a mile south of the freeway. Marchand also mentioned that such infrastructure would increase private business investment significantly. He did not address concerns by opponents to BART about crime.

The Mayor also spoke the new solar farm just completed behind the Livermore Public Library which, he said, now provides 70% of the power to the Civic Centre.

Marchand proudly described how some city departments gave up funds to allow $2 Million to be re-allocated to the Livermore Police Department, which resulted in the reinstatement of the Drug and Gang Task Force. He took that opportunity to re-introduce his new Police Chief Michael Harris. Seven new Police Officers have been hired, according to the Mayor, with three more slots available.

He also introduced Tamera LeBeau, the new director of the Livermore Public Library, and went on to speak of how Livermore had one of the finest libraries in the area, with two other branch libraries, where Pleasanton has only one, and Dublin's library is an Alameda County branch library. Marchand very proudly spoke of how much the library had been offering to the community and how much more it would do in the future.

When the Mayor spoke of events, he noted that Livermore would be taking a “Year Off” from the AmGen Tour, implying that AmGen would return at some point. He also spoke of the Little League Intermediate World Series at Max Bear Park this year, describing how players from Puerto Rico compared Livermore's down town to Disnelyland. He did not say if the Little Legue World Series would return next year. Overall, Marchand said there were sixty special events in Livermore this year compared with only five when AmGen first came to Livermore four years ago.

After the Mayor's presentation, Marchand took written questions as well as relevant voiced questions from those attending. Much of them concerned issues he had already addressed in his presentation.

One questioner asked what it would take to force Livermore residents to switch to 100% renewable energy, which seemed to take the Mayor off guard. His response was that it would take hundreds of millions of dollars to enact such an effort, and left it at that.

Overall, the Mayor was well received by those in attendance, going just beyond his Eight O'Clock deadline.