2024 State of the City Speech
with Mayor Bruce Houdesheldt
August 16, 2024, Goldfield Trading Post
Prepared text of the State of the City speech:
We are in the heart of Historic Roseville today on a block that has served as a focal point throughout Roseville’s 115-year history. Vernon Street is a section of U.S. Route 40 that stretches across the country. The street is anchored to the east by Randy Peter’s Catering, which is housed in a former Buick dealership. To the west, we have the Lohse Apartment building, which is the site of a former gas station. Across the street from us is the iconic Roseville Theater.
I am pleased this morning to be joined by my colleagues on City Council and our community partners whose leadership, continued support, and hands-on approach continue to help guide our city’s successes year after year.
Please join me in recognizing my colleagues on the City Council. Vice Mayor Krista Bernasconi, Councilmember Scott Alvord, Councilmember Pauline Roccucci, and Councilmember Tracy Mendonsa. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to making Roseville more than just “an exit on the way to the Sierras.”
And we are supported by our families. I will take a point of personal privilege to recognize my wife Shelley, for her loving support and always making sure my perspective and action is fully thought out. I am also joined by our son Harrison. I am sure each of us receives input from our spouses, whether we ask or not. After all, they love Roseville as much as we do.
While state and federal politics can be partisan shouting matches, that’s not the Roseville way. Since its founding, the Roseville City Council has maintained its non-partisan focus on serving our community. Or as we pride ourselves in saying at Northern California Water Association, where I work, we are about the “fix, not the fight.”
Each of us does this job because we care deeply about the legacy we have been entrusted with.
We want to keep Roseville on track.
Our venue today, here at Goldfield Trading Post, is a testament to keeping things on track. This site was once a JC Penney store...the hub of retail activity on Vernon Street. It was shuttered for years, but through the City’s proactive efforts, it’s now a thriving anchor of dining and entertainment on Vernon Street.
Next door, Monk’s Cellar will celebrate its 10th Anniversary next month. There are lots of things I get to do as mayor, but one of my favorite duties is tapping the first keg of Oktoberfest at Monk’s. With the last name Houdesheldt, kinda makes sense. This renaissance of Downtown Roseville that we’re in the midst of today, began with the vision of City Councils a quarter century ago.
I see many familiar faces this morning, but one is notably missing. A good friend and advisor to many here...Aldo Pineschi. Aldo was a behind-the-scenes community connector, a leader, and champion who lost his battle with cancer in May.
Aldo and I shared a love of music. One of my lasting memories of him was last July here at Goldfield seeing the English Beat. Aldo was a private person, who frowned on being in the spotlight so it surprised me when he told me to tell everyone about his diagnosis. His message was to tell the world that he wanted to give cancer a swift kick in the…! Aldo was prolific, ever-present, and supportive of ALL things Roseville. He’s been a key player in many of those successes. Aldo’s spirit of quiet and humble leadership should inspire the way we all govern.
Active listening and being open-minded. Taking a thoughtful approach to solutions. Empowering others to share their views—whether they are in synergy with the group, or outliers who have a different perspective on an issue.
This happens every other Wednesday night at City Council meetings.
We consider policy direction, listen to input from the public, and deliberate before making decisions. But it also happens beyond that: In meetings where we represent the City’s interest and in conversations with our community. We blend perspectives that we bring to our policy decisions. We’re respectful and not divisive in our deliberations. Even when we don’t agree on a situation, we make it a point to be open to a range of thoughts and views. Roseville is foremost in our minds and hearts, not personal victories, or headlines. That’s always been Roseville’s strength.
Our strong vision keeps us on track.
Some may think Roseville is an overnight success. The reality is that the Roseville you see today is an overnight success a half century in the making.
While much of the construction may be new, the planning is not. It’s a reflection of careful deliberation about what we want to create, revitalize and grow in our city.
That constant and forward motion was symbolized by Union Pacific’s Big Boy locomotive that visited Roseville last month. How many of you were among the 30,000 people that saw one of the world’s largest steam locomotives? It was a tribute to UP’s rich railroad legacy and a strong reminder of what we do together, through changing times and circumstances, to keep Roseville’s future on track.
I’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate the strides we’ve made in this last year.
Our number one priority in the Council’s 4-year strategic plan is to ensure a safe and healthy community.
Our Police Department and Fire Department lead the charge in keeping Roseville safe.
- This past year, the Real Time Crime Center was completed. Its 8-screen video wall allows for real-time tracking of incidents in the City and has proven vital to apprehending suspects and keeping officers and the public safe.
- We have a new Mobile Command Post and a SWAT tactical response vehicle to enhance response capabilities and readiness.
- We obtained a $600,000 grant to fight retail theft. We added more license-plate reader cameras and launched Operation Grinch last winter, and Operation Heat Wave this summer, which ironically took place during a period of triple digit heat. We had dozens of arrests in multiple jurisdictions and recovered thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise. That put a dent in a problem that has ballooned in our state.
We’re grappling with that problem on the legislative front as well. Voters will weigh in as they consider Prop. 36 in November. It aims to address the rising issues of drug addiction and theft complicated by the 2014 voter-backed initiative Prop. 47, which lowered penalties for these crimes. And at next week’s City Council meeting, the Council will consider formal support for the initiative in advance of the November election.
This has already been a busy fire season in our state. Our fire department continues a proactive and successful response throughout the city. The Fire Department improved response times further by putting the Engine 8 crew into service last December, serving Campus Oaks, Blue Oaks, Quail Glen, and beyond. Roseville Station 8 will open this fall, which serves the Industrial Area West, expanding coverage throughout our city. I want to thank our Fire Department for their mutual aid support as they’ve been deployed to fight the Park Fire and others throughout the state, and as staff has been deployed to support FEMA’s efforts in disaster zones throughout the country.
And let’s not forget to thank our digital first responders, led by the IT Team, which keeps our technology systems operational and secure. This keeps critical systems up and running like they did last month, working through the night and weekend during the Crowd Strike incident. They kept our services on track, from our 911 dispatch center and our utilities, to our traffic cameras and traffic signals.
Turning our attention to homelessness, our City remains focused on preventing and addressing homelessness and decreasing associated blight. We disbursed nearly $900,000 dollars in Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing funds from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. An initiative launched through Placer County in late 2018 is known as the Community Solutions Built for Zero initiative and has resulted in permanently housing nearly 600 Placer County residents. It’s a clear demonstration of how partners coming together to coordinate critical programs and services to address homelessness can result in big impacts.
The Roseville Police Department’s Social Services Unit has been using the Roseville Homeless Response Team model. This model has led to over 1,300 individuals securing or maintaining permanent housing in the last year alone.
Another key priority is to remain fiscally responsible in a changing world by balancing city services and customer rates and pursuing opportunities to generate more funding, including grant funding, for our city.
The changes in our world keep coming.
Domestic policies and global events.
Mixed economic signals.
Political uncertainty.
Though our sales tax growth has slowed, we continue to remain in a stable financial position, fully funding our reserves. The budget is the most important policy document that comes before Council each year, and I appreciate the countless hours staff invests developing, analyzing, and monitoring our budget. The excellent stewardship of our public funds remains a critical piece to the smooth functioning of our City.
This allows us to continue enhancing the economic vitality of Roseville, another priority in the Council Strategic Plan. We’re advancing sports tourism and fostering a business climate that supports small businesses and entrepreneurship, while still welcoming and strengthening tech and other industry sectors.
Last summer we broke ground on the highly-anticipated Roseville Soccer Complex—with its completion set for late next year. With 10 fields, the complex will provide a world-class experience for youth and adult sports, including soccer, rugby, lacrosse and more, and is expected to generate $15 million dollars in annual economic benefit for our city.
The Roseville Venture Lab that many of you walked past on your way here this morning, completed its second year of programming and activation this month. The lab hosted more than 50 programs and events, and serviced more than 2,000 participants for the second year in a row. This continues to enhance awareness that our City engages in innovative partnerships and supports small businesses and entrepreneurship.
We continue to successfully support expansion efforts for many businesses such as Penumbra, Quick Quack, Chik Fil A and Dutch Bros., while also welcoming new businesses like Alpine Rock Climbing, Electric Pickle for the legions of pickleball aficionados, and Fieldwork Brewing, a beer garden and outdoor venue that will host concerts, events and festivals.
And I personally look forward to the groundbreaking of several other new businesses coming to the city, such as the new Costco at Baseline Marketplace, which will begin construction soon and is estimated to open in late 2025. This and other businesses will bring much-needed retail to western Roseville, and an estimated $7 million dollars in annual sales tax revenue to the city.
Other upcoming projects include the Erikson Senior Living Facility, Sprinter Roseville, and five hotels. All of these are still in the construction planning process. They are a testament to our city’s desirability as a destination.
While new growth and new business attraction is a huge goal, so is the expansion of existing businesses. With Germany-based Bosch’s acquisition of Roseville-based TSI Semiconductors, Roseville’s desirability as a place to do business remains strong internationally. The acquisition means a one-and-a-half billion-dollar investment will transform its current site into a facility that produces semiconductors that are key for electric vehicles. It's an important product to have manufactured on US soil.
In our growing healthcare sector, Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente are both expanding their footprints. Sutter is adding a building for its new residency program and recently built a new parking garage. Sutter just announced its plans to build a $10 million dollar advanced operating room. That tower crane seen in the distance is Kaiser beginning work on a new six-story in-patient tower. This will make Kaiser the largest hospital in Placer County. Between the two hospitals, Roseville will maintain its distinction as one of the most popular birthplaces for new Californians.
We are committed to our priority to invest in well-planned infrastructure and growth.
We continue to attract new residents who want to call Roseville their home, too. Anyone who has traveled to the western part of the city can see the growth that’s occurred from a pandemic-fueled acceleration. What we’re experiencing now is a slower, more normal pace of residential growth.
Infrastructure is key to supporting the community we have as it grows. We're widening Pleasant Grove Boulevard, continuing water resiliency investments, improving our gateway and entryway corridors, reconfiguring key intersections and timing traffic signals, and increasing our electric utility capacity. In fact, you might have seen the front page story in the Sacramento Bee this week touting Roseville Electric’s competitive rates and reliability. Infrastructure is a massive undertaking.
Our efforts to widen Baseline Road to four lanes have improved traffic flow and enhanced public safety response times. It also allows for the first connection through Sierra Vista to the West Roseville Specific Plan. This creates more connectivity in our city and increases ease of travel for residents and local commuters. I’m happy to say that Roseville Parkway extension is another transportation project that’s nearing completion, adding to the options for east-west connection in our city.
We also completed the Pleasant Grove Wastewater Treatment Plant Expansion, which increases the treatment capacity and helps generate renewable natural gas to power the refuse truck fleet.
In addition to a renewed agreement between Placer County Water Agency and Roseville in 2023, Roseville received an $8 million grant from the California Natural Resources Agency and Department of Water Resources for two new groundwater wells. As part of Roseville's Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Program, two ASR wells are being constructed in central and western Roseville and dedicated in 2024.
Investing in ASR infrastructure helps Roseville manage water in a sustainable way that fits with how our city's water works. With ample rain and snowfall in 2023, Roseville banked enough water to supply more than 6,000 homes.
Along with growth in our city, we’re seeing more growth around us. It’s exciting to see that SacState and Sierra College signed an agreement to create a “communiversity” just north of Roseville in an area called PlacerOne that broke ground last year. The plans are another example of an overnight success a quarter century in the making and will strengthen the regional ecosystem for workforce development.
We’ve been engaged in discussions with Placer County for years about development on the City’s borders, which also includes Placer Vineyards south of city limits and another university campus west of city limits. While growth brings opportunities, it also will increase demand for City services and intensify impacts on our infrastructure by non-Roseville residents. We’ll continue to work with Placer County to find opportunities and solutions as development continues.
Traffic concerns come up often in South Placer. While the plans to get ahead of this have been in place, the funding has not. The problem has many causes.
- Declining fuel tax revenues
- Nearly non-existent State funding for highway and road improvements
- Competitive funding programs that now require local funding matches.
How do we break the bottleneck of congestion? An option that’s been in the works for more than decade requires voter approval. In November voters will have the opportunity to break the bottleneck through by supporting Measure B a half-cent transportation sales tax in South Placer. It’s expected to raise over one-and-a-half billion dollars in the next 30 years. Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, and South Placer attract shoppers from as far away as Chico, the Bay Area, and Reno. Traffic congestion on our highways and surface streets are greater today than they were in 2016 the last time this was considered.
Another important priority is to support community engagement and advocacy. I’ll highlight how we’re doing this in the area of housing. Roseville is an overachiever in providing affordable housing and has been for a while. The Roseville Housing Authority will celebrate its 50th Anniversary this year.
As you know, the housing crisis nationally, and in California, is dire. Roseville’s General Plan requires a 10% commitment to affordable housing. We have affordable housing available throughout our City, including in our newest residential developments. Here is why I say Roseville is an overachiever in affordable housing
Roseville is one of the first to be designated a Prohousing City. This makes Roseville more competitive for state and federal funding and could accelerate the timelines for future projects.
The California Housing and Community Development Department awarded Roseville $3.9 million dollars in matching funds to help support the development of affordable rental housing. To date, nearly 4,000 affordable units for rent or purchase have been developed, with another 2,500 units in the pipeline over the next few years. And a significant number are senior affordable housing.
And it’s helpful to know what we’re talking about when we say low income. In 2024, a household with an annual income of approximately $90,000 in Roseville is considered lower income...which itself speaks to the magnitude of the issue.
The Housing Authority created a Landlord Incentive Program to ensure more available units for those holding Housing Choice Vouchers and to mitigate durations of homelessness. So far we’ve recruited 30 new landlords. Through city-partnered development, in tandem with our growth, we continue to be a leader in providing affordable housing units. And many veterans are housed through these programs.
I am proud Roseville recognizes our veterans. My father and father-in-law were both Army veterans, serving “in-country” in Korea and Vietnam. Those veterans and family members of veterans here today please raise your hands. Thank you for your commitment to our country and for your dedication.
- Working with the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Roseville became the first city in Placer County to be designated a Purple Heart City.
- Nearly a year ago, we dedicated Nicole Gee Drive here in the City of Roseville to honor Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, an Oakmont High School graduate who was killed in a terrorist attack three years ago as she assisted women and children evacuating from Afghanistan.
- Our Wall of Honor, outside the Roseville Telephone building, recognizes local Roseville Veterans for their contributions.
We are humbled and grateful.
Finally, at the core of why Roseville continues to attract new businesses and residents, is our ongoing commitment to deliver exceptional City services.
Our City employees are a true testament to this commitment. They’re dedicated people, and many of them are residents themselves. As a City, we are committed to being an employer of choice, which helps us continue to attract top-notch professionals who exemplify our core competencies.
We hosted neighborhood clean-up events and drug take-back days, where we collected more than two hundred sixty thousand pounds of waste and two thousand pounds of unwanted or expired medication, both contributing to a safer and healthier environment.
We prioritize transparency, having added resources, data and information to our Open Roseville website – so that our community can easily find information on projects, our spending and our performance. We also launched the MyRSVL app 10 months ago, where our residents can submit service requests or ask questions. Ten thousand people have already downloaded the app.
For the third year in a row, our Parks, Recreation and Libraries Department is a finalist for the prestigious National Gold Medal for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management. We are one of four finalists in our population bracket to be recognized for our planning, resource management, volunteerism, environmental stewardship and agency recognition.
And although the successes that I’ve mentioned in my time at this podium may seem like a lot, it’s only a small representation of the daily successes we’ve experienced under the support of dedicated leadership.
Thank you to City Manager Dominick Casey, and our city staff, who continue to provide unmatched city services...keeping a constant eye on public safety, our utilities, roads, parks and libraries, cybersecurity threats, and the economy...ensuring our community knows what’s happening, advocating for us at the state and nation’s capital, engaging in meaningful ways, and protecting our finances to help keep us economically stable. You care and it shows.
Thank you to the Roseville Chamber of Commerce for hosting this event and for continuing to connect and strengthen our business community and our City. It’s obvious why you are five-star accredited and I have NO doubt you’d be rated 10 stars if that was a thing! It was the Chamber, 115 years ago, that traveled to San Francisco to reassure the railroad that incorporation would be a partnership NOT a hinderance to their operations. A partnership that continues to this day.
And finally, thank you to each one of you here today. You represent businesses, companies, neighborhood associations, schools, non-profits, and our partners in regional government. You continue to show up to do the important work that helps us thrive. I’m grateful for what you do.
As this year’s State of the City address comes to a close, I want to recognize the people throughout our community who model decorum and civility every day. You instill trust. The future of our City is great –because of our residents, because of our staff, because of the businesses who choose to build here, and because of our collective ability to work together to keep our vision on track.
With that, I say, “Full steam ahead!” as we remember those on whose shoulders we stand as we look to the future.
In honor of Aldo, English Beat will close us out.
Have a wonderful rest of your day and thank you for coming!