2018 City Council Issues

Nolan is passionate about a local housing market that works for young families and seniors. Vacaville has been busy building new housing units but those units are all being built in the moderate to high income categories. The City of Vacaville has to set development goals for new housing stock. Vacaville has an 8 year plan with target goals for new housing units. This plan: The 2015-2023 Housing Element targets the construction of 1084 new housing units. The city has already exceeded it’s goal 3 years into the plan with 1090 units. The problem is the city has over produced moderate and above moderate “high” income housing. To be precise the city set the goal of 471 affordable permits and have only issued 106 permits (less than 20%), 273 moderate permits and has issued 556 (over 200%) and 490 above moderate and has issued 428 permits (close to 95%). We continue to build housing that is unaffordable for young families and seniors. Something has to change, Vacaville is a town for families yet we have almost no housing stock for new families to start off their home ownership pathway and continue to build high end housing that attracts out-of-towners from the bay area who cash out and buy here. A healthy housing inventory has to have starter home and senior housing abundance to make sure Vacaville families can continue to raise their families and live in Vacaville. We are not a a “bedroom” community.

Nolan values a community that produces good local jobs for it’s residents. The average Vacaville resident has a 27 mile commute to work. Almost one third of Vacaville jobs are also in the retail and service sector. There is nothing wrong with these types of businesses but they often don’t afford their workers a wage that allows for home ownership or to fully support their family. We need to continue to attract businesses like Kaiser Permanente, Genentech and Travis Credit union that pay good wages and benefits to their employees. We don’t need more service sector jobs, we need living wage jobs that help Vacaville residents thrive. Vacaville should not be a commuter city, our residents should not have to commute to the bay area or Sacramento to earn a living. We need to support our city staff in attracting major employers to provide great jobs at home for our residents. We have the second largest bio-manufacturing facility in the WORLD and one of only two Bio-Engineering Community College four year degrees in the state right here in our own backyard. We should be the “Silicon Valley” of bio-tech and City leaders can do more to make this happen. Good jobs at home for local residents, no more commutes and good wages here at home!

The City of Vacaville is in murky financial waters. Out of 460 California cities Vacaville ranks in the bottom 40 for fiscal health especially in relation to the city’s debts and unfunded liabilities. This is unacceptable. Vacaville has health revenues from local sales taxes and Measure M brings in millions annually to support our city’s ongoing financial health. City leaders need to make our fiscal health a major priority and stop blaming our fiscal situation on the financial crash of 2007. It has been 10 years and our residents and city employees deserve better. Our council needs to lead our city into a solid financial future and put lots of time and effort into ensuring our children don’t pay the fiscal burden for decisions we make today. We need city leaders with an eye for red ink, not afraid to bring in outside parties and to work hard to build a budget that doesn’t run deficits, protects the general fund and makes sure we can honor the obligations we have made financially to our citizens and city employees. Nolan has experience with government budgets, for the past decade he has managed a county department in a neighboring county with a $90,000,000 annual budget, 300 employees and numerous buildings. He has the experience, the ability and dedication to help right our financial ship and make sure our fiscal future is bright.

Vacaville is a safe community. We can walk the streets at night, take our kids to the park and enjoy a relatively low crime rate. This is mostly due in part to our amazing police, fire and first-responder employees. We need to continue to ensure that safe streets are a top priority, maintain competitive salaries to attract top talent and make sure our emergency personnel receive the best training and equipment money can buy to continue to keep Vacaville safe. Nolan values our first-responders and knows they are a vital part to the fabric of what makes Vacaville the safe, responsive and healthy city it is today.

Nolan understands that a city needs to grow to thrive. That growth has to be smart and well planned. Over the last decade Vacaville has continued to build new housing developments that lack parks, schools and recreational facilities for our growing families. Did you know that the residents of North Village (one of Vacaville’s newest developments) was promised a park almost a decade ago when residents started buying homes? Because of the deal the city struck with the developers the lot the park was to be built on sat vacant for close to a decade. We continue to build into the agricultural belt in Vanden Meadows with no viable plan for parks, schools or retails. We cannot just continue to build housing tracts with no amenities for our residents. That doesn’t build communities it builds a commuter village. Every child deserves a park they can play in, a school they can walk to and retail to support their family. Vacaville also has a vibrant senior community, further development in the leisure town area needs to be focused on the needs of that community and issues like community centers, retail, traffic, schools and facilities for kids and seniors needs to be planned out first. No more housing tracts, we need communities for Vacaville families to thrive. Nolan is pro in-fill development and is passionate about projects like the “east of main district” and focusing new growth in town, in areas that we have schools, parks or amenities to support these new residents. This includes working with local businesses who want to expand locally. As a city we need to help small local business grown and expand. We need to make projects for local business owners affordable to start and make sure local businesses thrive in Vacaville. We need to work with local businesses not against them! Smart growth is a huge priority for Nolan.

Vacaville has some of the finest recreational facilities in the region. Whether you are playing a game at Keating Park, hiking through Lagoon Valley Park, swimming at our amazing Aquatic Center, playing with your kids at Great Wonders Park or catching a show at the Vacaville Performing Arts Theater you know we have world class amenities for our residents. If you have visited any of these locations lately you may notice things are a little worn down, grass may be un-mowed, lights may be out or bathrooms may be out of order. Our growing city needs to continue to maintain these treasures and as our city grows we need to continue to upgrade these amenities and expand for a growing population. As a City of Vacaville Community Services Commissioner for over 3 years Nolan knows our city is severely behind our parks and recreation goals. Our parks staff are underfunded, our maintenance staff are overworked and we don’t have the volume of facilities needed to serve a city of our size. If elected, Nolan will continue to champion the highest quality of recreational facilities, adequate amenities for our youth and senior population and unwavering standards of quality for existing facilities. Vacaville is a family town, we need to support our parks and recreation programs and facilities to the standard that our citizens expect and deserve. Great parks make a great community!