Lee Brand, Candidate for Fresno City Council District 6

I have lived in Fresno for over 50 years, attending local locals and graduating from Roosevelt High School. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from California State University, Fresno and completed my education with a master's degree in public administration (M.P.A.) from the University of Southern California. My wife Trish and I have been married 29 years and we have four children and one grandchild.

I am the co-founder and President of Westco Equities, Inc. Starting from a two person office, Westco has grown to one of the leading property management companies in Central California. We currently manage a portfolio of approximately $350 million in properties throughout Central California. Westco is a diversified company that provides ancillary support services for its properties including general construction, heating and air conditioning, plumbing, and painting that generates millions of dollars per year in revenues. We employ over 100 people.

For the past 15 years, I have been actively engaged in the community. I have served on several boards and commissions including: Fresno City Planning Commission (two years as chair); the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Affordable Housing; the Mayor's Economic Development Task Force on the Empowerment Zone; Chair of the Northeast Fresno Planning and Implementation Committee; Chair of the Government Review Council for the Fresno Chamber of Commerce; Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Fresno City Charter; board member of the Council of Governments Blueprint Land Use Planning Task Force; board member of the Workforce Investment Board; board member of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce PAC; board member of Arts to Zoo Initiative; board member San Joaquin River Parkway Trust; and board member of the Greater Fresno Apartment Association. I have also a member of the Fresno Business Council and a former Fig Garden Rotarian.

Why Am I Running

This is a question I am asked frequently and one I ponder myself sometimes. I always give the same answer. I am running because I feel that we can do better. Fresno has a legacy of poor leadership. This legacy culminated with the operation rezone convictions about 10 years ago. With some exceptions, we tend to elect inexperienced people who have good intentions but absolutely no experience in dealing with the complexities of a $1 billion budget, thousands of employees and a diverse population that demands more from its local government.

Issues

Budget Crisis:

There are already projections of a shortfall for the FY 2008-09 budget of up to $18 million. We are facing the "perfect storm of financial calamity". On one front, we have rising demand and costs of local government. On the other front, we have declining revenues from the state due to the subprime loan crisis and a looming recession. Fresno will need its best, brightest, and most experienced to get us through this pending financial crisis without compromising vital city services like public safety and jeopardizing our quality of life. My first step to getting control of the city budget is to adapt a zero based budget system. In a zero based budget system, each year every department must justify all of their personnel and other costs. This type of system will make is possible to find inefficiencies and possible cost savings.

Public Safety:

With over 7,000 known gang members in Fresno and new felons that are being released from our prison system every day, we must be vigilant in our public safety services. Our quality of life depends upon keeping our streets safe. High crime rates directly influence the livability of our city and adversely affect our ability to attract new business to our city. Fresno currently has a police force ratio of 1.7 officers per 1,000 people. The national average is about 2.0 officers per 1,000 people. To bring Fresno to the national average will mean hiring about 125 more officers. This will be difficult to achieve in our current budget crisis, but we need to start closing the gap to insure that our streets remain safe. We also need to upgrade our fire department facilities and staffing level to improve our ISO classification rating (response time to a fire) to a level two. This would save money for business and homeowners on their insurance policies.

Economic Development:

We cannot sustain our community without a healthy economy. Supporting existing business and bringing in new business is essential to our local economy. Since the demise of Roeding Industrial Park there has been no serious effort to assemble the parcels for a large, 500 plus acre industrial park. One of my top priorities is to set a goal for the city, working with the private sector, to find and assemble the parcels to build a large industrial park that would potentially employ thousands of people in the construction phase and thousands of permanent jobs from business that locates in Fresno.

We also need to streamline city red tape that often hinder and delay potential businesses from locating in Fresno. I have two proposals for streamlining city services for new business: 1) Pre zoning land for industrial parks or redevelopment projects will expedite the entitlement process by over a year and could make the difference in whether or not a business chooses to locate in Fresno and 2) assembling an interdepartmental city team that would be assigned to major projects to help "shepherd" the project through the bureaucratic maze at city hall.

Downtown Revitalization:

The character of a city is judged by its historic downtown area. Revitalization of our downtown is essential to improving our image as a city and an important part of economic development. More has been done in the past 5 years than the previous 25 years in resurrecting our downtown area. The baseball stadium was a major catalyst in promoting downtown. Other projects in the works including the Forest City South Stadium Project, the Legacy Project, Chinatown and Armenian town are major components in revitalization.

I do not believe in taxpayers subsidizing or outright paying for private development projects downtown. Market forces will drive and determine the viability of any project. I have no problem with offering some incentives (e.g. tax credits or property tax abatement). The revitalization of downtown will follow a pattern with building blocks put together in sequence, with commercial, residential and retail development driven my market forces.

Air Quality:

The San Joaquin Valley experiences some of the worst air quality in the nation. We pay a high price for non-attainment of air quality: one in five children have asthma and we have an estimated economic loss of $3.2 billion. I will support: 1) legislation to rid of roads of gross polluters; 2) City of Fresno clean air initiatives and Fresno Green; and 3) accelerating our plans to achieve clean air attainment by 2017.

Planning and Growth:

The 2025 General Plan is the blueprint for future growth in Fresno. I was part of the Fresno City Planning Commission that approved this plan that dramatically alters our growth pattern by going "in and up" instead of a continued outward expansion. We need to stay the course on this comprehensive document and resist rezone pressures. I also support the recent increase in development fees to pay for infrastructure and street maintenance.

Over the past 30 years, there has been a continued outward expansion of our city. Our urban expansion has destroyed agricultural land in the path of growth and abandoned older city neighborhoods. We need to draw a "line in the sand" to set the outward boundaries of our city. I would propose an agricultural green belt be established on the exterior boundaries of our city to promote all future growth to high density, infill projects.

Education:

While the City Council does not have any direct control over school district such as Fresno Unified it can support and collaborate with Fresno Unified. The city recreation department offers after school recreation programs that can help lower the dropout rate. I am a strong advocate of vocational programs that are absent from Fresno schools. We need to bring back vocational programs to Fresno Unified that will offer valuable job training your our youth and offer another reason for a student to stay in school. To improve communication between the City and Fresno Unified I would like to see at least one joint meeting between the city council and school board per year.

Consolidation of Law Enforcement:

We need to make consolidation of duplicate services the city and county law enforcement agencies a top priority. The potential savings generated by consolidation will put more officers on the street and make our city safer. There has been more than enough talk for too many years. In fact, it was over 10 years ago that the Little Hoover Commission recommended consolidation of law enforcement. Now is the time for action.

Regional Planning:

Regional planning has now come to the forefront of policy making through the efforts of organizations like the Great Valley Center. The Fresno Council of Government's Blueprint planning effort currently underway is promoting regional thinking and planning. One of the ideas generated at the Blueprint planning session was the Metro Rural Loop transportation and planning model. This innovative concept represents a future vision of what Fresno could be like. Poor air quality affects our entire valley. Getting all of the Central Valley counties to work together and lobby Sacramento for assistance on air quality and transportation issues will help every city in the Central Valley.

Contact Information:

Lee Brand for Fresno City Council District 6
1625 E. Shaw, Suite 116
Fresno, Ca. 93710
Website: www.leebrand.net Email: lee@leebrand.net
Phone: (559) 903-9735