Measure Q and Other City Issues
Marina has many legitimate policy, budget and project questions. They do not all answer the Measure Q question. This page separates issues that directly affect the proposed Utility Users Tax from issues that are relevant to City oversight but use a different funding source, legal process or project decision.
Does Marina have more than $200 million available, so Measure Q is not needed?
No. The money does not exist the way that claim makes it sound. Marina's latest audited report shows $213.37 million in cash and investments, but that is the total of many different City funds added together. Much of the money is restricted by law, held for a specific program, already set aside to projects, held for other agencies, or needed for City operations and reserves.
Where does the $213.37 million go?
| Major group | Amount | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| City government funds | $177.62M | General government money spread among the General Fund, building and improvement projects, impact fees, FORA funds and other City funds. Much of it is restricted or already set aside. |
| City business-type funds | $22.12M | Money tied to City business operations. It is not simply General Fund cash available for the three buildings. |
| Money held for others funds | $13.63M | Money the City holds in trust or for specific obligations. It is not general City money available for the facilities. |
| Total cash and investments | $213.37M | This is the number behind the $200 million claim. |
Bottom line: The $213.37 million number is real. Saying all $213.37 million is available to build the three facilities is not. The useful question is how much of the City's existing money can legally and practically be used for those projects after restrictions, existing commitments, operations and reserves are taken into account.
Want the detailed breakdown? See where the money is restricted or set aside.
The City's audited governmental fund statements provide another view of the money. This is a fund-balance breakdown, not another $213.37 million to add to the table above.
| Governmental fund | Fund balance | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| General Fund | $52.42M | City's main day-to-day fund. Only part of this balance is unassigned. |
| City Building and Improvement Projects | $45.62M | Earmarked for approved or carried-forward building and improvement projects. |
| Impact Fees | $23.62M | Restricted to improvements allowed by development-impact-fee rules. |
| FORA Dissolution | $23.23M | Restricted to allowed former Fort Ord/FORA purposes. |
| Abrams B debt service | $0.55M | Held for debt payments. |
| Other governmental funds | $25.98M | Multiple smaller funds with their own purposes and restrictions. |
| Total governmental fund balance | $171.42M | This is a different accounting measure from the $177.62M governmental cash-and-investment figure above. |
Within governmental fund balances, about $29.8 million was classified as unassigned at June 30, 2025. Unassigned does not mean the City should spend all of it. It means it was not reported as restricted, set aside or assigned for another purpose at year-end. The City can also change some commitments through formal Council action, while restricted by law money has tighter limits.
Quick relevance guide
| Issue | What it is | Measure Q connection | More detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Police, Fire and City Hall | Replacement or modernization of core City facilities | Direct. These facilities are central to the stated Measure Q rationale. | History · Debt · CFCAC |
| General City services | Public safety, streets, facilities and other General Fund services | Direct. Measure Q is a general tax and is not legally limited to the three buildings. | Measure Q · Funds |
| Aquatic & Recreation Center | Separate building or improvement project and day-to-day program | Indirect. Operations can affect the General Fund, but this is not the same building or improvement project. | Budget |
| Preston Park | City-owned rental housing and related project questions | Indirect. Its finances can matter, but balances are not automatically interchangeable with UUT money raised. | Funds |
| Sea Haven / Dunes parks | Development-related parks and project obligations | Mostly separate. Developer obligations, impact fees and grants have their own restrictions. | Development |
| Equestrian Center | City property and concession management | Separate unless a material General Fund effect is documented. | Budget |
| Cal Am litigation | Water policy and litigation expense | Indirect. Spending is a budget question, but it is not itself the building funding proposal. | Budget |
| Del Monte / Reservation projects | Road, signal, landscaping and roundabout projects | Mixed. Existing projects may use restricted transportation funds, while Measure Q also permits street and general-service spending. | Funds |
| Development incentives | Negotiated agreements intended to produce development and future money raised | Indirect. Each agreement should be tested for actual General Fund cost or foregone money raised. | Development |
Are Measure Q facts being presented differently by the City, campaign websites and social media?
Yes. The City of Marina and opponents of Measure Q often begin with some of the same actual facts but emphasize different parts. City communications generally emphasize facility needs, public safety, local funding and accountability. NoMarinaUUT.com emphasizes the legal flexibility of a general tax, the 7% rate, the lack of an automatic sunset and other City financial decisions.
Some statements from both perspectives are supported by the record. Others are interpretations, and some omit context that can materially change how a statement is understood.
Police and Fire facilities
Are facility conditions relevant to Measure Q?
Yes. The official ballot question identifies firefighters, EMTs, police, emergency operations and repair or upgrade of police, fire and City buildings. The City currently estimates the core replacement facilities at approximately $69.3 million.
Does Measure Q legally guarantee every dollar goes to the buildings?
No. It is a general tax. The ballot language also includes streets, potholes and general City services. That legal distinction should remain visible even when the facilities are the principal policy rationale.
Aquatic & Recreation Center
Do opening date, membership fees and day-to-day costs matter?
Yes, to the overall budget. The adopted FY 2025-26/FY 2026-27 budget calls for day-to-day policies, a membership campaign, staffing and opening the Marina Aquatic and Sports Center.
Does that alone establish that Measure Q is unnecessary?
No. The useful comparison is the documented General Fund day-to-day effect of the recreation facility versus the separate project need for Police, Fire and City Hall. The two should not be combined without showing the accounting connection.
Preston Park
Are funding, Habitat Management Plan, grants, scope and transfers legitimate questions?
Yes. They should be answered from the Preston Park project record and fund accounting.
Should every Preston Park balance be counted as cash available for the Measure Q facilities?
Not automatically. A balance, refunding capacity, transfer or appropriation is not necessarily unrestricted General Fund cash. The relevant questions are the source, legal restrictions, commitments and amount actually transferable.
Sea Haven Park and City Park at The Dunes
Do schedules and delays matter?
Yes. They help evaluate whether the City and developers are meeting commitments.
Are these the same funding question as Measure Q?
Usually not. Development parks can involve development agreements, developer obligations, impact fees, grants and restricted project sources. A delayed park can be a project-management concern without proving that its money could legally be moved to Police, Fire or City Hall.
Equestrian Center
Does an RFP or concessionaire decision affect Measure Q?
Not directly on the information presently documented. RFP transparency and concession terms are legitimate oversight questions. They become relevant to Measure Q if a documented General Fund cost, money raised commitment or transferable resource materially changes the building funding assumptions.
Cal Am desalination litigation
Is total litigation spending a legitimate question?
Yes. Residents can ask for total legal cost, current appropriation, funding source and remaining exposure. The City continues to state that it is involved in litigation over the proposed desalination project and identifies groundwater and environmental concerns as the basis for its position.
Does disagreement over the litigation settle the Measure Q question?
No. It can affect views of City priorities, but the financial question is narrower: how much unrestricted General Fund capacity would exist without that expense, and would it materially change the facilities funding gap?
Del Monte Boulevard, Reservation Road and the roundabout
Why have previously budgeted transportation projects not been completed?
That is a legitimate project-delivery question. Before treating an appropriation as money available for another purpose, identify whether it is a grant, impact fee, transportation money raised, local match or unrestricted General Fund appropriation.
Could Measure Q money raised be used for roads?
Yes. The official ballot language expressly includes streets and potholes and permits general City services. Existing transportation-project funds still need to be analyzed separately.
Reservation Road signals and corridor improvements
An appropriation means money was authorized for a purpose. It does not by itself establish that the money is unrestricted, unencumbered or available for public-safety facilities. The useful questions are funding source, remaining balance, restrictions, grant or contract deadlines, and whether Council could legally move it.
Development incentives and “giveaways”
Should development incentives be considered when judging City finances?
Yes, project by project. Test the public cost against the expected money raised or benefit. Some arrangements involve future tax sharing, land agreements, infrastructure obligations or development-specific money raised rather than an immediate unrestricted cash payment.
When does one become relevant to Measure Q?
When a documented agreement creates a General Fund obligation or foregone money raised large enough to materially change the claimed building funding gap. Otherwise it remains an important development-policy question, but a separate one.
Should Measure Q have a resident oversight committee?
The current Measure Q materials require annual independent audits and public spending disclosure, and the City describes community oversight. Earlier facilities-bond materials contemplated an independent citizens' oversight committee for bond spendings.
A Measure Q oversight body could meet periodically with the City Manager, Finance staff and project staff, review money raised, spendings, facility schedules and major variances, then publish a short public report. Because Measure Q is a general tax, its authority would need to match the law and Council action.
When the same claim keeps returning
Some public arguments are not single factual questions. They combine a real City decision, an incomplete fact, a later outcome and a broader conclusion such as “the City always gives developers money” or “there is plenty of cash, so Measure Q is unnecessary.” Repetition does not make the conclusion more complete.
How this site handles that type of claim
First, preserve the legitimate question. If a resident identifies a real contract, spending, delay or inconsistency, it belongs in the record.
Second, restore the decision-time context. A 2005 or 2008 development agreement should be evaluated using the agreement, market conditions, land value, infrastructure obligations and negotiated terms that existed then. A later home sale price or later development value does not retroactively rewrite the contract.
Third, separate error from consequence. A mistaken statement by a Council member, staff member or critic may deserve correction. The next question is whether the error changed a vote, contract, legal obligation, project cost or Measure Q loan assumption.
Fourth, stop the issue from swallowing the ballot question. Once the documented connection to Measure Q has been identified, the page links to the detailed issue and returns to the tax, facilities need, available money and funding choices.
Old decisions, current prices and hindsight
Marina's development history spans decades. A common source of confusion is comparing today's property value, tax money raised or construction cost with an agreement negotiated many years earlier. The relevant baseline is normally the contract and economic setting when the obligation was created, unless the agreement itself requires later revaluation or renegotiation.
This matters for development fees, land transactions, infrastructure commitments and money raised-sharing agreements. A claim can accurately state today's value and still reach an unsupported conclusion if it omits the contractual valuation date or the consideration Marina received in return.
Public-record requests and transparency disputes
Public records are an important way to test City claims. Marina provides a California Public Records Act request process through the City Clerk, and Police records use a separate records process. A records dispute, copying charge or slow response can be a legitimate transparency concern.
But the Measure Q test remains the same: What did the resulting record establish? A dispute over obtaining a document does not by itself prove that the actual spending, contract or ballot assumption is wrong. When a record changes the financial analysis, this site should update the relevant page and source table.
What should a reader do with a long list of unrelated City complaints?
Do not accept or reject the list as a package. Break it apart. Some items may be correct, some may be incomplete, and some may have little financial relationship to Measure Q. Use the relevance guide above, then follow only the issues that materially affect the ballot decision.
Five questions to use when a new claim appears
1. What fund is the money in? General Fund, grant, impact fee, developer obligation, enterprise/rental money raised, transportation fund, future tax sharing or debt?
2. Can it legally be moved? A large balance is not automatically available for another project.
3. How large is it? If available, would it materially change the approximately $69.3 million facilities need or the proposed funding?
4. Is this a oversight concern or a funding fact? Both can matter, but they answer different questions.
5. Is there a documented connection? If there is, follow it. If there is not, keep the issue visible but separate rather than using it as a substitute for the Measure Q financial analysis.