Background

TBWB began working with the City of Santa Rosa in 2002, as the City Council was engaged in continued budget cuts. The pressures of growth and reduced funding from Sacramento were stretching city resources thin, especially in public safety.

What We Did

The polling we directed showed that Santa Rosa residents respected local firefighters and police highly, but that their highest priority was traffic, not public safety – even though city officials knew they absolutely needed to address public safety funding issues first. Polling did not show that voters supported public safety enough to pass a ballot measure in November 2002.

TBWB Public Finance Strategies crafted a plan to help set up Santa Rosa for success at the ballot box in November 2004:

• Worked with city management and labor unions to make sure everyone – police, fire, budget, councilmembers and others – had a seat at the table, separate from contract negotiations
• Helped staff craft a powerpoint presentation about budget needs and guided a program of over 30 presentations to a wide variety of citizen groups
• Created a brochure to explain the city’s budgetary challenges in a simple way to interested but uninformed citizens