■ Revenue would back transportation, road repair projects

The California League of Cities will ask Benicia City Council on Tuesday to support a state Senate bill and Assembly constitutional amendment that would raise gas, diesel and vehicle fees to pay for road repairs and ease requirements for local governments to pass special taxes for transportation projects.

City Manager Brad Kilger said in a May 12 report that Senate Bill 16 would raise revenue through a 10-cent increase in the excise tax on gasoline and a 12-cent increase in the excise tax on diesel.

In addition, SB 16 calls for raising registration fees by $35 for all vehicles and by $100 for zero-emission vehicles.

If passed, Benicia might receive $569,676 the first year, increasing to $732,440 by the fifth year — though a League of Cities statement advised Benicia employees not to rely “too heavily on these numbers” because the legislation might be modified before it is passed.

The Senate legislation is called the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program, designed as a temporary, five-year state funding source that would periodically require renewal.

The bill also would provide for payback of outstanding transportation loans during a three-year period and return truck weight fees to the transportation fund during a five-year period, during which the General Fund would be backfilled by incremental increases in fees.

The Assembly’s constitutional amendment would let local governments impose, extend or increase special taxes for transportation projects after the matter receives 55-percent voter approval, Kilger wrote.

Currently, cities need a two-thirds majority vote to impose special taxes, Kilger wrote, and that threshold is “a very difficult bar to reach.”

The Senate bill has cleared the Senate Transportation, Housing and Governance and Finance committees, he wrote, and is now before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The amendment to the California Constitution has been passed by the Assembly Transportation Committee and will be presented to the Committee on Revenue and Taxation.

Both measures face multiple committee and floor votes, Kilger wrote.

Also on Tuesday’s agenda, but on the Council’s consent calendar, is a resolution that would amend the Benicia Mills Act program to increase the number of allowable contracts to 40 and to postpone this year’s application deadline to Sept. 30, 2015.

Community Development Director Christina Ratcliffe wrote May 7 that the Council adopted the program in 2003 to give owners of historic properties, through contracts with the city, property tax discounts in exchange for performing specific assignments and maintaining their buildings in ways that conform to the Secretary of Interior standards for historic preservation.

Should the Council concur with the proposal and contracts be increased to 40, the cost to the city would be $38,000 annually, Ratcliffe wrote, including lost taxes and staff costs of $150 for each contract.

The city has issued 37 Mills Act contracts, she wrote, and previously had set cost ceilings as limits. But variations in property tax revenues have made a dollar threshold difficult to calculate, according to previous reports by Principal Planner Amy Million.

The matter, as a consent calendar item, could be decided without comment along with several other proposals, unless a member of the Council or the public requests its separate consideration.

Also on the consent calendar is a request from Benicia police Chief Erik Upson to buy 28 Taser X2s, holsters and cameras.

“The police department’s current Tasers (X26s) are outdated technologically compared with industry standards,” Upson wrote in his request to Kilger. Those were bought in 2007, he wrote, have a five-year life span and one-year warranty and have been discontinued — meaning the department can’t purchase replacement parts or get them repaired.

“The department needs to transition to the new X2 model to continue possessing this force option for its staff,” Upson wrote. The new models operate similarly, minimizing training requirements, but the X2 has better ergonomics, weatherproofing, data collection, reliability and durability, he wrote.

The city budgeted $59,460 for the purchase, but the expected cost, $52,498.40, would leave a balance of $2,938.52 in the Citizens Option for Public Safety (COPS) Supplemental Safety Equipment fund.

Another request on the consent calendar is for $198,711.08 in playground equipment for Benicia Community Park, submitted by Parks and Community Services Director Michael Dotson.

The playground structure would replace equipment installed in 1994, when the park was built. Surrounding sand would be replaced with engineered fiber.

The cost of removing the old structure is included in the price, Dotson wrote.

Measure C funds, coming from a voter-approved 1-cent local sales tax increase, would underwrite the purchase.

In the same vote, the Council will decide whether to approve the March 31 quarterly Budget-to-Actual Report for All Funds.

Proclamations for Philippine Cultural Week and National Public Works Week will be read, and the Council will hear presentations on Public Works Week, federal and state regional transportation funding, and winners of the Law Day Magna Carta contest.

Mayor Elizabeth Patterson will appoint Gary Montgomery to the Civil Service Commission for a term ending Jan. 31, 2018.

The Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in a closed session on legal matters. The regular meeting starts at 7 Tuesday night in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.