Mill Valley committee opens review of municipal services tax; staff urges keeping pavement funding steady

Mill Valley’s Municipal Services Tax Study Committee began its work with staff presentations that framed the city’s road network as largely healthy but carrying a sizable backlog and funding gap.

“It was $266 when it was approved,” City Manager Ervin Carmel said of the municipal services tax (MST), adding that the levy “goes up by 2% per year.” Carmel told the panel the tax has historically been used primarily for roads (staff cited about 85% of MST funds going to pavement work) with a smaller share for fire-related needs.

Deputy Director of Engineering Jared Vartasharian said the city’s systemwide weighted pavement condition index (PCI) is about 79—“we’re good,” he said—but emphasized that a relatively small percentage of the network represents a large share of replacement cost. “We have about 61 centerline miles of pavement,” Vartasharian said. “Our liability for all of our roads today is about $210,000,000.”

Staff presented three modeled funding scenarios: (1) a high-investment build-up that would raise PCI into the mid-80s but requires substantially greater annual investment, (2) a moderate increase that would improve PCI over five years, and (3) the city’s current-investment baseline at about $3.0 million per year. Jared Vartasharian said current-investment projections (including MST and other restricted funds) would hold PCI near today’s level but would not eliminate the backlog.

City staff reported MST revenue for FY24–25 at roughly $1.9 million, with about $1.6 million spent on street improvement projects last year and the remainder used for vegetation management. Staff recommended continuing the current pavement-investment approach and setting aside roughly $300,000 annually for proactive vegetation and tree work rather than funding such work entirely from MST on an ad hoc basis.

The committee’s conversation focused on four practical questions put forward by former council member John McCauley: What uses should the MST cover (roads only or roads plus fire/vegetation); which failed road segments account for the highest costs and whether a small number of short, expensive segments skew the backlog figure; how many years will be required to complete the backlog at different funding levels; and whether the tax can be presented to voters as a time-limited measure rather than a permanent additional levy. McCauley asked whether the analysis in the consultant’s five-year window is sufficient and urged a longer, more granular review.

Public works staff agreed to return with more detailed evidence at the next meeting: a map of failed road segments, per-segment cost estimates and an explanation of how priority lists are generated (the city uses a biannual PCI survey and StreetSaver software to generate optimized lists based on available funding). Andy Boaster, the public works director, said staff already keeps a list of every road segment, its PCI and an estimate, and offered to bring that information to the committee in a form that avoids pre-selecting by name.

The committee set near-term logistics and leadership: members agreed to meet again in February and elected Andy Boaster to serve as chair with John McCauley as vice chair. Staff said they will circulate a doodle poll to lock meeting dates and will return with the requested maps and per-segment cost detail.

Votes at a glance
- Agenda approval: motion made and carried (multiple ayes recorded).
- Chair/vice chair: Andy Boaster elected chair; John McCauley elected vice chair (motion carried).
- Adjournment: motion to adjourn carried at meeting close.

Next steps
Staff will supply the committee with a map of the city’s lowest-PCI (failed) segments, per-segment cost estimates and clearer accounting for how MST and other funding buckets were used in the prior fiscal year. The committee will use that material to refine recommendations on MST scope, amount and duration.