Deja Vu All Over Again
The City of Salinas has a General Fund budget very similar to ours -- i.e. very low revenue per capita. I thought I'd share the following article from their local newspaper. It looks like they are taking many of the same measures that we did (including an identically sized budget committe) -- except they are doing at a painful year later than us!
Here's the story (click here for link):
Comparing the city to a patient who is "flatlining" in an intensive care unit, Mayor Dennis Donohue on Monday outlined the causes of Salinas' financial crisis and the coming steps to revive it.
In his State of the Budget address at the City Hall Rotunda, the mayor said the city is identifying $9.6 million in cuts to services, staff and salaries to balance its next budget.
For the past decade, Donohue said, Salinas has been "resuscitated under Code Blue time and again," beginning with the financial crisis that led to the City Council's decision, before Measure V came along, to close libraries.
"[T]he city as patient is flatlining in the budget, and it is unlikely even the EMT's can get there in time to save the patient for yet another life," Donohue said.
But even as he predicted another shortfall next year and decried the city's repeated returns to crisis-management mode, Donohue said the patient would not die and promised to help transform government "so that we don't have to call Code Blue every year."
The first step, he said, comes Feb. 2 with the appointment of a blue ribbon budget review committee to recommend cuts and revenue enhancements to the council. The committee will be comprised of up to 15 members from various sources, including city staff; the independent budget review committee; the planning and permit task force; the Measure V oversight committee; neighborhood groups; and members of the public, including participants in the Saving Salinas forum at TheCalifornian.com.
The committee will give a final report May 6.
On March 2, the city's first layoff notices will go out after a council review of its budget-balancing plan. The notices will be tentative until closer to the July 1 start of the fiscal year. The current plan calls for about 68 layoffs across departments. The city plans to approach its unions for new concessions on top of the $12 million negotiated in the past two years.
Donohue defended the 2007 pay raises to police, fire and other employees that were identified as a "possible cause" of the city's structural deficit in a report last week from the nine-member independent budget-review committee.
"We couldn't get enough officers, or those we got left town really fast, and we were constantly chasing our tail and raising our overtime and training costs," he said. "We attract locally, but we lose to the Bay Area. The council made a decision ... that we will be competitive to the tri-county area. That's reasonable.
"You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. The low end of the salary spectrum really is not going to get you to a significant place .... Even if you got some additional concessions, we do not break the groundhog cycle with salary concessions," he said, referring to the movie "Groundhog Day," in which a man relives an unpleasant day over and over.
In 2007, the council approved raises of 12 percent for Salinas firefighters and 25 percent for police officers and management, spread out over two to two-and-a-half years; and 18 percent for 350 other employees.
What would end the city's cyclical financial crises? Donohue identified the "root cause" as insufficient revenue, comparing the $485 in per capita revenue for Salinas to $552 in Seaside; $581 in Watsonville; $634 in Gilroy; and $1,832 in Monterey.
"Our tax base continues to shrink, but the demand for services continues to grow," he said. "If you want a different outcome on the gang issue, we're going to have to make a major investment."
He declined to say whether that investment should take the shape of a tax increase.
"We will need to engage in a full-scale community engagement process [on the investment], even the equivalent of our own Salinas constitutional convention," Donohue said
Here's the story (click here for link):
Comparing the city to a patient who is "flatlining" in an intensive care unit, Mayor Dennis Donohue on Monday outlined the causes of Salinas' financial crisis and the coming steps to revive it.
In his State of the Budget address at the City Hall Rotunda, the mayor said the city is identifying $9.6 million in cuts to services, staff and salaries to balance its next budget.
For the past decade, Donohue said, Salinas has been "resuscitated under Code Blue time and again," beginning with the financial crisis that led to the City Council's decision, before Measure V came along, to close libraries.
"[T]he city as patient is flatlining in the budget, and it is unlikely even the EMT's can get there in time to save the patient for yet another life," Donohue said.
But even as he predicted another shortfall next year and decried the city's repeated returns to crisis-management mode, Donohue said the patient would not die and promised to help transform government "so that we don't have to call Code Blue every year."
The first step, he said, comes Feb. 2 with the appointment of a blue ribbon budget review committee to recommend cuts and revenue enhancements to the council. The committee will be comprised of up to 15 members from various sources, including city staff; the independent budget review committee; the planning and permit task force; the Measure V oversight committee; neighborhood groups; and members of the public, including participants in the Saving Salinas forum at TheCalifornian.com.
The committee will give a final report May 6.
On March 2, the city's first layoff notices will go out after a council review of its budget-balancing plan. The notices will be tentative until closer to the July 1 start of the fiscal year. The current plan calls for about 68 layoffs across departments. The city plans to approach its unions for new concessions on top of the $12 million negotiated in the past two years.
Donohue defended the 2007 pay raises to police, fire and other employees that were identified as a "possible cause" of the city's structural deficit in a report last week from the nine-member independent budget-review committee.
"We couldn't get enough officers, or those we got left town really fast, and we were constantly chasing our tail and raising our overtime and training costs," he said. "We attract locally, but we lose to the Bay Area. The council made a decision ... that we will be competitive to the tri-county area. That's reasonable.
"You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. The low end of the salary spectrum really is not going to get you to a significant place .... Even if you got some additional concessions, we do not break the groundhog cycle with salary concessions," he said, referring to the movie "Groundhog Day," in which a man relives an unpleasant day over and over.
In 2007, the council approved raises of 12 percent for Salinas firefighters and 25 percent for police officers and management, spread out over two to two-and-a-half years; and 18 percent for 350 other employees.
What would end the city's cyclical financial crises? Donohue identified the "root cause" as insufficient revenue, comparing the $485 in per capita revenue for Salinas to $552 in Seaside; $581 in Watsonville; $634 in Gilroy; and $1,832 in Monterey.
"Our tax base continues to shrink, but the demand for services continues to grow," he said. "If you want a different outcome on the gang issue, we're going to have to make a major investment."
He declined to say whether that investment should take the shape of a tax increase.
"We will need to engage in a full-scale community engagement process [on the investment], even the equivalent of our own Salinas constitutional convention," Donohue said
posted by City Manager @ 4:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home