 |
 |
Linda Babonis
By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Rohnert Park has appointed a City Hall insider as economic development manager, a move designed to revive its flagging finances.
Housing and Redevelopment Manager Linda Babonis, one of 35 applicants for the position, will head a three-person economic development team, City Manager Gabe Gonzalez said Wednesday.
Babonis said her first steps will be “developing programs aimed at things like business retention, business growth and attracting business.”
The chief aim of creating Babonis’ position is to boost city revenues, such as sales and hotel bed taxes, Gonzalez said.
“The federal government is not going to bail us out; the state’s certainly not going to help us, so we have to be proactive,” he said. “It’s vital to our long-term solvency and financial sustainability.”
Babonis was paid $7,592 a month as a non-management employee. Her new management-level salary will be $9,007 a month.
Her work will incorporate a 20-point economic development plan the City Council adopted in 2010. It calls for, among other things, coordinating with local business leaders and the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau, starting a “micro-loan” program to support small businesses, speeding up the business application process, and refashioning the city as a “youth, sports, recreation and cultural center.”
Babonis’ team will include Marilyn Ponton, the planning and building manager, and Rebecca Zito, a city public works management analyst.
“We’re putting together the vision and then we will develop the tool box to implement the programs,” Babonis said.
Also, Mayor Gina Belforte said Wednesday that she will urge the county’s mayors and councilmembers to create a coordinated, countywide approach to economic development through public works.
“A lot of us have money that’s restricted to public works projects and we have a lot of money set aside for that,” she said.
“It’s perfect for her to be able to dovetail that and say, ‘What can I do to drive that,’” she said.
Subscribe by Email
Follow us on Twitter
Linda Babonis is a talented, thoughtful, creative public employee. We’re lucky to have her in Rohnert Park. I’m anxious to see what she does with the new responsibilities she has been given.
I wonder what sort of vision Ms. Babonis had that made her stand out from all the other applicants.
Was it her track record at increasing revenue?
Was it her other initiatives that improved the towns where she lived?
Was it her vision for the future of Rohnert Park that was so enticing?
Rohnert Park is at a bit of a cross roads at the moment. The city council has just redefined part of the town as a Priority Development Area to help get funding…and maybe purchase/lease the vacant State Farm property.
Was this part of her proposal? Shouldn’t the city council address just what made her such a great candidate?
Perhaps she talked about other towns that have been turning around their fortunes in these economic times. One such town was addressed in the comment section of the Rohnert Park Patch.
A small town in Oregon (Lebanon) just opened a medical school. See the story here: http://www.oahhs.org/news/press-releases/2011/osteopathic-medical-school-to.html
Rohnert Park is a college town…and I think a history of bringing in this sort of institution would be just the sort of experience the city council would be looking for in an Economic Development Manager.
Is Sandy Lipitz still the chief fiscal officer? Didn’t city manager Gonzales say that the city needed somebody who would produce figures the city could rely on and then attempt to terminate her? Why is this being hushed up? Could it be that the city doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact that the figures in the financial statements it has been publishing for the last several years are either meaningless or just made up? How do we know the city really is broke when the chief fiscal officer does not produce figures the city can rely on?
How much business revenue would she need to create to justify the position? I bet is MILLIONS in gross sales. Unfortunately
she will be powerless do do much aside from collecting a nice check.
Obviously, this is a major error. Rohnert Park needs to correct the error immediately before it becomes a mistake. You could pay this lady a million and she can’t possibly come up with a magic bullet. So, Rohnert Park’s leaders need to reconsider this decision immediately. This polition needs to be eliminated immediately before she works a single day and save the $100,000.
Then, Rohnert Park’s City Manager and City Council have to get serious and decide to address their problems rather than pawn it off on some advisor or consultant.
The hard decison to be made is simple. They need to cut services to only those services only the government can provide. They have to honor existing contracts until they expire and not enter into any more they can’t afford to pay.
Rohnert Park has layers and layers and layers of redundant bureaucracy. Another bureaucrat just magnifies the problem. She has no answers. She can’t come up with a plan that will solve the problem. The problem is Rohnert Park is spending more than is coming in from tax revenue. You don’t need another expensive bureaucrat to “confirm” what you already know.
Rohnert Park elected a 5-0 majority and have a “tough” city manager who can supposedly make the hard decisions and earn his elaborate compensation package. And even with that, the obvious decision can’t be made here?
Seriously? Is another bureaucrat the answer? This is beyond pathetic. Errors aren’t mistakes until you refuse to correct them. This bad decision is easily corrected and my free advice to Rohnert Park is to quickly and simply correct this obvious error.
Great, another ‘desk’ job for a City Hall insider, making recommendations that anyone right here in this thread could come up with, just for the asking. Like virtually no other city in California are having the same issues, so Ms. Linda Babonis can just simply create a plan and implement it immediately and wah-lah, all is fiscally good in RP.
Right… let’s see, I guess now this summer we can expect all but one pool to be closed, only mow the parks once a month, install quarter-machine light timers for the tennis and basketball courts and soccer playing fields, and eliminate all pot-hole repairs. (wait, I think that’s already been done).
Another $9,007 a month plus benefits and retirement joke by the City of RP. Just another example of the city really believing we can spend our way out of this fiscal mess on high-end administation. Ha ha, the jokes on us.
So they make up a new position, give her an extra $1,500/month…for what??
Let me try to explain this to the economically challenged…If this opening received 35 applicants, you would think that DEMAND exceeds SUPPLY, thus they wouldn’t have to pay $9,000+/month plus a freaking pension. Yet, we taxpaying morons allow them to give insiders a 19% RAISE when unemployment is 10%!!
It is absolutely unbelievable that this happens and there is no outcry. Unions protest when their benefits are even talked about. Union members strike when they demand outrageous pay raises, and the employer caves (every time!!). Yet when TAXPAYER MONEY is WASTED, over and over, the people do nothing. Freaking nothing!
With unemployment at such ridiculous levels, why would a city pay exorbitant salaries for positions that really do nothing. Come one, we all know the “Economic Development Manager” does nothing but get overpaid and eventually collect a pension.
Politicians spin everything into us against them. Obama is pointing at Republicans as the blame for the slow passage of his joke of a “jobs bill” (a complete retread of the same ideas he has already tried…government spending DOESN’T create JOBS!!!), The liars who wasted $500M on Solyndra are blaming BUSH!! Blaming BUSH for their $500M waste of taxpayer money. People are just so ignorant.
The people will never wake up and see what is really happening.
her pay is indicative of the the problems we face
take out government pay and what is the median income for Rohnert Park
Another bureaucrat? How many more do we need to hire and pay for and finally realize they don’t solve any problems? This lady is going to be like the lame color commentators on the football games who spout cliches and describe what you are seeing for yourself. Why ANOTHER $100,000 plus employee? Just hire the darn bankruptcy lawyer and get it over with. This is a “I give up” from the highly paid city manager and the city council unwilling to be accountable for its decisions.
The poor taxpayers of Rhonert Park. The city manager promotes a clerk to a management position and pays her $108,084 a year base plus benefits.
Apparently her chief job will be to recommend sales tax increases and hotel tax increases.
I’ll bet they could have found a student from SSU or a professor who could have given them a tax increase figure for a recommendation with lots of bombast justification and explanation to back it up.
Rohnert Park also seems to be bent of diverting tax money for streets and sewers to other other pet city council projects.
All of this reminds me of the old Soviet system of top down dictatorship. Keep the peasants (taxpayers) in line and build those projects they have reserved for their pals and financial supporters.
In reality, what do any of the people know about private sector business development or planning? Nothing except being a local government bureaucrat.
TAX TAX TAX TAX TAX TAX. GIVE MONEY TO UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS UNIONS
Now pay me 200k, retirement in 5 years with 75% of my pay
This reminds me of an actual comment I heard at a Cotati city council meeting. A woman much like Rohnert Park’s new economic development manager made a presentation about improving traffic flow. A member of the audience asked when he could expect to see results.
With a straight face, she answered, “Oh, we don’t do anything. We’re just a task force.”