Mayor: State of the City 'Remains Strong ... Future Bright'

Tony Beall stood at a podium alongside a movie screen at the Dove Canyon Golf Club on Thursday morning and delivered a state of the city speech.

The mayor touched on many subjects before a Who's Who of local and county leaders, including Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, Orange County Fire Chief Keith Richter, as well as assemblywoman Diana Harkey and representatives for other area and state leaders. Even Harry Welch, the Santa Margarita Catholic football coach, was in attendance.

The message was pretty clear. "The city remains strong, and our city's future bright," Beall said.

Beall's speech was the focal point of the morning, but it wasn't the only news. The Rancho Santa Margarita Business Alliance, under president Suzanne Singh, announced that it had received the documentation recognizing it now as the Rancho Santa Margarita Chamber of Commerce; the group also unveiled its new logo.

"I agree with (Beall) completely, that we're headed toward a better economic situation," Singh said. "Businesses are doing better than they have. It's a gradual process, and it's slow, but it's good."

The event also served to recognize city manager Steve Hayman, who announced his retirement effective Dec. 30.

Beall's speech was front-loaded with city budget and safety information, notably that Rancho Santa Margarita, after making a 10 percent cut in spending totaling $1.5 million to keep the city out of the red, concluded this fiscal year with a $1.3 million surplus and overall reserves of $19.4 million. The city's assets and reserves are greater than at any time in the city's history.

"We are now in a sound, strong, and sustainable financial position," Beall said. "We are now poised for future growth and success. This was a significant achievement made during very uncertain times." 

He also pointed to three key decisions that will benefit the city, "examples of innovative leadership": selling the city's Southern California Edison energy credits to the city of Laguna Beach for $430,000; adopting a significant pension reform plan for new city employees; and completing an update audit of every Mello Roos tax district and confirming the city is entitled to receive more than a half-million dollars in reimbursement.

Beall also illustrated that nearly half of the city's budget goes to public safety, including $7 million to police services, and that Rancho Santa Margarita was ranked—according to FBI crime statistics—as the safest city in California with a population greater than 20,000.

As Beall's term as mayor nears its end, he touched on many facets of the RSM experience in 2011, including:

• Increased transparency within city government, including on the city's website the implementation of streaming audio allowing residents to listen to city council meetings without actually attending the meetings; an e-comment feature; a Mello-Roos search tool; and a presence on social media Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.
• The arrival of new businesses BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse, Ulta Beauty, Sears Home Appliance Showroom, Academic Learning Labs, LNF Home Creative Transformations, Marque Urgent Care, Togo's, and Embarcadero Restaurant.
• The expansion, or planned expansion, by existing businesses Verizon, Applied Medical, 's, 's, 's, and .
• The commitment of In-N-Out Burger to open a location on Rancho Santa Margarita Parkway.
• The proposed Chiquita Ridge development including South Orange County's largest sports park, and the completion of the to provide safe drinking water for customers in the event of an emergency.
• The reemergence of the Rancho Santa Margarita 5K in the form of a fundraiser through a partnership as the , which raised more than $50,000 for Children's Hospital of Orange County.
• The , the annual New Year's Eve event, and the summer concert series.
• The extension of the 241 toll road.
• H and the and honorary consul Dr. Juris Bunkis.
• The to Bell Tower Regional Community Center by the Bell Tower Foundation, and the city's continued collaboration with SAMLARC, Community Associations of Rancho, the Historical Society, the South Orange County Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Rancho Santa Margarita Business Alliance, the YMCA, and the 2/5 Marines.

Beall's comments seemed to be well-received. Former councilmen Jim Thor and Gary Thompson were among those in attendance.

"I thought the presentation was well done, he hit all the important highlights that  people need to understand in this current climate—Rancho has always weathered well through thick and thin," said Thompson, who resigned in March to care for his family. "It just goes to show that when you work together as a community you can weather the storm, the business community, SAMLARC, CAR, that kind of stuff. We’re all in this togheter to get through the bad times and keep the good times going. The other part that I came away with is that we’ve got a good track record in this city for a number of years."

Thor said he was happy "to see the new Chamber coming back into play."

"They did a great job with the format, the content was good, I was glad to see the city has turned back around," said Thor, who did not seek reelection last year. "He made some good, salient points. A couple of years ago that chart was going into the reserves."

Beall said that RSM could be a model for Sacramento as well as other cities, and he even handed Harkey an outline of his speech and told her to "start fixing the state. There's nothing we're doing here that can't be done in Sacramento."

Beall told Patch afterward: "At a time when many agencies in our state and nation are drowning in debt and deficit, Rancho Santa Margarita is thriving. We ended last year with a surplus and millions in reserve, with a city ranked by the FBI as the safest in California. That's our job. We don't make determinations about abortion, we fill the potholes. We're the local guys. We keep a balanced budget and keep the people safe, which is our priority, and we've got money in the bank. Those are results we can all be very proud of."