April 6, 2009

Burlingame’s Storm Drains: Underground, underfunded and misunderstood

On the surface, it seems like a crazy idea, asking property owners in Burlingame to approve an annual fee to overhaul the city’s storm drain system at a time when people are worried about keeping their jobs and homes. Why would the City Council do such a thing?

To understand why, you would need to descend into the netherworld beneath Burlingame to see the disintegrating pipes and collapsing culverts that are supposed to channel surface runoff into the bay. Each time a big storm descends, city workers fight a heroic battle against the rising tide, struggling to clear drains and channels of debris. I’m sure you’ve seen them out there, standing in water up to their knees as the wind and rain rage.

Yet it is a losing battle. The 80-year-old storm drain system wasn’t designed to last this long. Past floods have caused serious property damage, cut off access by emergency vehicles and overwhelmed the sewer system, sending pollution into the bay and making us liable for fines of up to $10,000 per day. During the past three months alone, storm drains have collapsed along Skyline Boulevard and Sanchez Avenue.

The Way It Was

For a while, the city was able to put millions of dollars into shoring up the system every year, but that ended with 9/11, when our city’s revenues plunged $10 million and we began cutting basic services. Patching no longer works. The system needs a complete overhaul.

The cuts in city services after 9/11 at what we called Tier 1, 2 and 3 levels provoked howls of outrage from citizens, but our city had no choice. Then, just when revenues were beginning to return to reasonable levels, the bottom fell out of the economy. We recently cut $2 million from the current budget and another $2.3 million out of the 2009-10 budget (Tiers 4, 5 and 6), eliminating two police officers, taking one fire engine out of service and reducing staffing on the other engines, and trimming library hours, street cleaning, park maintenance and more.

News about the latest shortfall in sales tax revenue means we’re going to have to cut another $500,000. And if the storm drain measure doesn’t pass, we’ll have to slash at least $2 million more each year to begin building a reserve to pay for the $39 million in improvements that must be made.

To save $2 million, we’ll have to shut City Hall on Fridays, require nonemergency city employees to take 24 days per year of unpaid leave, close a fire station, discontinue the school resource police officer and traffic bureau, close the Easton Branch Library, close the Village Park preschool program, discontinue after-school sports programs for elementary and middle school students, and more. Meanwhile, construction costs for the storm drain work go up at least $1.5 million every year that we wait.

Cut, cut, cut

Trying to convince people to vote to fund storm drain improvements isn’t easy. We would much prefer to build things like a brand new Recreation Center, an all-weather sports field at Bayside Park and new sidewalks. As one former City Council member who served when the city built a new library and corporation yard told me, “You guys don’t get to have any fun! All you do is cut, cut, cut!”

But the reality is that a bad flood could cause property damage that would plunge our city – and lots of homeowners and business owners – into serious debt.

There is a simple way to solve our flooding problem.  If every homeowner pays an average of $150 per year, we can start fixing our storm drain system immediately. By law, the funds will be spent only on improving storm drains, and a citizens’ oversight committee will supervise the project. Individuals over age 62 with incomes under $35,500 can defer the fee until their property changes hands. The measure would sunset after 30 years.

The fee is based on the impermeable square footage on each property; an average that has been calculated for each neighborhood. If you feel you have less lot coverage than your neighbors, you can appeal the charge.

We had hoped that the federal stimulus money would help fund the work, but it turns out that projects eligible for this funding need to be “shovel ready,” and we need several million dollars before we can create the plans.

All five Burlingame City Council members support the storm drain measure, along with hundreds of local property owners and other school and government leaders. We urge you to vote “Yes” on the ballot that will soon arrive in your mailbox.

Once we don’t have to live in fear of flooding, we can begin to have fun again. Maybe we can even build something new.

For more information about Burlingame’s storm drain measure, including a list of endorsers, visit www.protectburlingame.org or call (650) 347-1717 or (650) 558-7230.

See you around town!