CITY OF SIGNAL HILL 2175 Cherry Avenue * Signal Hill, CA 90755-3799 May 9, 2016 Receive Phillip A. Washington, CEO. METRO MAY 16 2016 One Gateway Plaza Mail Stop 99-25-1 : Los Angeles, CA 90012-2952 Office of the CEO Subject: Measure R2 ~ Equitable Local Retum and Green Streets Funding Dear Mr. Washington: The City of Signal Hill is writing in response to your April 14, 2016 letter and is again requesting equitable funding for cities with small populations as part of the potential Measure R2 sales tax ballot measure of 2016. Small cities are impacted by regional traffic and should receive a minimum of $1 million in local return instead of a local return allocation based on an outdated per-capita formula. This equitable minimum funding will aid small cities address regional traffic impacts and the Green Streets Program. METRO should play an important role in the solution of providing permanent funding for much needed improvements to the pollution generated by the region's network of streets and highways. We appreciate your commitment to recommend an amendment to the draft Expenditure Plan that would allow the Local Retum allocation to be used by the cities and the County for funding “Green Streets’ projects. However, additional money must be added to the Local Return to fund green streets. We offer to work with METRO as you consider additional funding sources such that we can reach the requested allocation for stormwater treatment through the Green Streets component of the Local Retum for this critical environmental program, Amended Expenditure Plan We are requesting a copy of the amended language in the draft Expenditure Plan that would allow the cities and the County to use the Local Return Program for local Green Streets projects. We will need to discuss the amendment with our City Council, since this is a key component of our decision on whether to support the tax measure. We are happy to work with you on language revisions prior to the METRO Board taking a final action on the ballot measure. The language needs to be clear and concise, since there should be no debate when the expenditures rules are drafted by METRO staff. faMeasure R2— Minimum Allocation for Small Cities May 10, 2016 Page 2 Minimum Allocation for Small Cities Measure R2 should provide a minimum equitable return of $1 million per year to the cities, regardless of their population. Some of the smallest cities in Los Angeles County also generate significant sales taxes to the program — including cities like Commerce, Santa Fe Springs and Signal Hill. This $1 million Local Return Program base will assist the small, disadvantaged communities as well. Most of our communities have major arterial highways, which serve as regional transit and goods movement corridors and as congestion relief to overcrowded freeways. This minimum amount will also assist the smaller cities in implementing the water quality requirements for their streets and highways. Signal Hill estimates that it will generate $10 million to Measure R Program in 2017 and will only receive $134,354 in local return based on Metro's 2017 projected local retum estimates. Signal Hill will generate approximately $30 million to million to METRO this year for the Proposition A, Proposition C, and Measure R tax measures. Signal Hill is projected to receive a combined $537,138 from these measures based on the current “per capita” distribution formula. Signal Hill will generate an additional $5 milion to Measure R2 annually, resulting in the City generating a total of $35 million annually to METRO. We estimate that the City will receive an additional $67,200 under the proposed 16% return formula. This is unacceptable. We stand ready to work with METRO on these critical issues. Again, we appreciate your support of amending the expenditure plan and look forward to your support in increasing the Local Return or Green Streets Program so that the bond measure can practically be used to address regional traffic impacts and support the new water quality mandates. Sincerely, Dy Wotds— Mayor cc: City Council METRO Board Member Ms. Kristine Guerrero, League of California Cities Mr. Sam Olivito, CECA