What Do We Know About Pleasanton's City-Owned Trees? They're Worth $54 Million

Recently I contacted Joanne Hall, Pleasanton's Public Information Officer, and Michael Fulford from Pleasanton's Landscape Architecture and Heritage Tree Program. I did not ask questions concerning every aspect of city business and services, but did gather information on several of the departments and operations.

Did you Know that the city maintains an inventory of all the trees in its urban forest? There are street trees, park trees and trees that surround government buildings.

The inventory includes about 25,000 trees in all, made up of approximately 200 different species, from the common - such as the London Plane Pine Tree - to the rare and unusual, such as Bunya Bunya and Swamp Mahoga3ny.

The inventory is a "working document" that is used to assist the Parks Maintenance Division with its routine tree maintenance efforts. Trees are listed in the inventory by street address, species, size (trunk diameter and height) and maintenance requirement.

Although the street tree inventory is an internal document only, and while it is not available on-line, residents are welcome to phone the Parks Management Division at 931-5565 if they have any questions about the street tree that may be in front of their property.

In addition the inventory notes the locations of "vacant planting sites" throughout Pleasanton, and each year an effort is made to plant new trees in many of these empty sites.

I asked Michael Fulford, what is the value of the city-owned trees? He responded "the value of the City's urban forest is conservatively estimated to be $54 million."

I asked several questions of Joanne Hall concerning the number of employees, etc. I also asked what it costs to hire, train and equip a policeman for the city of Pleasanton.

Did you know the city of Pleasanton employs 460 regular employees and 355 temporary employees? Of the 460 regular employees, 115 live in Pleasanton. Of the 355 temporary employees, 264 live in Pleasanton.

The city does not keep data on the many languages employees speak. Joanne said the City does have "tools" to translate information for patrons through a language line service that provides access to translators 24 hours a day.

The cost to hire, train and outfit a new police officer can vary from $7,500 to $10,000 depending on the variance of equipment pricing and specific needs of the individual personnel.

Outfitting costs include ballistic body armor, handheld radio, firearms, holster, leather duty belt (with accessories), tailored uniforms, inclement weather gear, ruggedized footwear etc.

I asked about concealed weapons permits requirements for sworn police officers. Joanne stated Peace officers in the State of California are statutorily authorized to carry concealed weapons. No concealed weapons permit is necessary for sworn peace officers.

I asked about off-hour emergency procedures. Joanne said the Operations Service Department (OSD) provides emergency services after hours in support of all city functions with the main functions being utilities calls.

This would include water, sewer and storm related issues. The department also responds to calls for street and tree emergencies to a lesser degree throughout the city. The service is available by contacting the Pleasanton Police Department after hours and they will dispatch the OSD standby personnel.

In the event of an emergency, the city of Pleasanton would activate its Emergency Operations Center (EOC), a central command and control point in which city staff would carry out emergency or disaster management.

The function is managed through the , where the two cities Emergency preparedness manager is located. There is a full roster of city staff assigned to the EOC, in two different shifts.

I asked what the city of Pleasanton use as the official population number of the city of Pleasanton? Our Economic Development and Planning Departments use the number from the California Department of Finance, Demographic Information Unit.

That number is 70,097.