Julia Fahl Ignite! Redevelopment Presentation

1. Community Development
Getting Buy In by Reaching Out

2. Community Development
Getting Buy In by Reaching Out

3. Fact 1:
Most of us don’t think about the role of local government
● Mayor
● Council
● Committees, Commissions, or Boards
Until….
There is a problem!

4. Fact 2:
The gears of government grind slowly
● Lack of capacity
● Noticing and hearing requirements
● Government is complicated and deals with complex
issues
Often there is no quick fix, easy solution, or sound bite.

5. Fact 3:
People care about their local government
● Roads and Infrastructure
● Trash pick up
● Taxes
They begin just don’t know it. Often the inciting act for
involvement is reaction to a problem.

6. Lambertville’s Challenges
● Structural Deficit between $2.5 - $5 million in the next
five years
● Neglected City infrastructure - $9 million of deferred
maintenance on city buildings over the next 10 years
● Short-term Affordable housing obligations

7. Governments have limited options to address challenges
Option 1: Continue to borrow Option 2: Cut costs and services
This is not best practice for a city.
Borrowing to pay debt is like taking out a credit card to pay off
another credit card.
- It makes the actual cost of government less transparent
- Pushes the problems of rising costs further down the
road
- Costs taxpayers more (Interest, professional costs)
Cutting costs will always be a high priority
- The city has systematically underfunded every
department for decades
- Because so much has already been cut, any more cuts
would have significant impacts on services
The level of service cut required to fill the current gap would be
more than eliminating the entire public works department.
Option 3: Raise taxes Option 4: Raise non-tax Revenue
To solve this problem taxes must be increased.
To solve this problem through taxes alone, the amount that
would need to be raised to cover this deficit would be impossibly
burdensome on homeowners and businesses (between $1,500
and $2,300 over the next five years).
Making Lambertville unaffordable also could create long-term
economic downturn and only further pressure the City Budget.
The most feasible way to raise revenue is by adding more
rateables (new buildings) to the tax base through commercial
redevelopment.
By law, revenue cannot be raised simply by increasing fees, and
revenue goals should not impact Court or other areas.
By having more people pay-in to the City budget we will be able
to offset new costs, and pay debt obligations, responsibly.

8. The Lambertville Buy In Plan
● Anticipate upcoming community uproar
● Reach out and educate the silent majority
through multiple avenues
● Don’t be discouraged by the loud few

9. The Calendar
● Budget Presentations in Governing Body (6)
● Budget Talks with the Mayor (7)
● Community Development Fair (2)
● City News Letter (Quarterly)
● Facebook Live (4)
● Mayor’s office hours (bi-weekly)
● Produce on-going documentation on the web
● Create new opportunities to volunteer

10. Budget House Parties

11. Community Development Fair

12. Community Development Fair

13. Using social media doesn’t communicate info
it re-enforces

16. The pros for aggressive early outreach
1. Provides space for a better alternative to arise from
conversation with the public
2. Gives government time to answer unexpected questions
without derailing major votes or progress
3. Provides time for the “silent majority” to engage before
decisions have to be made

17. The cons of aggressive early community
outreach
1. Is extremely time intensive
2. Creates extra work for already overworked government
staff
3. Creates time for opposition to organize and for
misinformation to spread
4. Can net bad policy making, if governing body’s lose
steam in the face of organized opposition

18. Before After

19. Creating avenue for public education
changes the conversation.
There will always be outcry
Building trust and over-communicating
can change the dynamic of decision
making.
Changing the tone of backlash

20. Ongoing Questions:
1. Is this scalable in cities larger than 1 mile?
2. Is this sustainable? Will governing body
members and staff burn out?
3. Is communication for outreach sake
worthwhile?