Budget set after last-minute dealings

Approval of the 2007-08 budget squeaked by the City Council Tuesday.

The approved budget included estimated revenues of $43.4 million, plus a balance of $4.06 million, but how that was to be spent divided the council, with Mayor Pro Tem Jane Egly and Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman voting “no” on the budget measure.

“I don’t know if I can be civil,” said a piqued Egly. “I came here civil, but now I am not civil.”

Egly was incensed that council members were messing with a budget she thought had been hashed out in two previous workshops and earlier in the meeting had complimented City Manager Ken Frank for his deft synthesis of their diverse wish lists submitted at the June 12 workshop.

“I am amazed you could put what we did in order,” Egly had said.

In addition to routine modifications to the current and preliminary budget, the council had about $171,000 more than the mandated 10% reserve to allocate Tuesday.

“I tried to piece together recommendations from the June 12 meeting,” Frank said. “Most of the council members indicated support for supplementing the Fire Department’s budget to contribute the $30,000 match for a $300,000 federal grant to replace self-contained breathing apparatus.”

That left $141,000.

He recommended divvying up the pot three ways: $45,000 for additional street cleaning, enhancing City Hall customer service and abatement of invasive weeds.

Kinsman insisted the enhancements had to include a receptionist in the lobby of City Hall, supported by Council members Kelly Boyd and Elizabeth Schneider.

Mayor Toni Iseman and Egly thought the council had determined to try out suggestions proposed by Assistant City Manager John Pietig before hiring pricey new personnel.

Kinsman also wanted $100,000 to show “token” support for South Coast Medical Center, which did not please Egly or the other council members. Schneider, a hospital employee, did not participate in the discussion.

“If Cheryl wants what she wants, then Toni should get what she wants,” Egly said. “We should just go with the recommendations.”

In the end, the bare majority voted to accept the proposed budget modifications, minor except for the $200,000 appropriation for emergency repairs to the North Coast Interceptor; Frank’s recommended allocations; the state-required annual appropriations limit, described by Frank as “silly” and a waste of everybody’s time.

Also approved were across the board salary increases for city personnel, as well as 5% performance bonuses for City Clerk Martha Anderson and City Treasurer Laura Parisi.

The council did not approve increasing the treasurer’s hours to full time, as Parisi had requested.

“More hours would have to come from the voters, who elected the treasurer as part time,” Kinsman said.

Schneider and Boyd criticized transfers from the city’s parking fund to balance the budget, which includes a 10% reserve, as required by law, but conceded using some of the fund to subsidize the city’s shuttle buses was legitimate.

“Anybody using the shuttle is not using a parking space,” said Iseman.

Schneider said the parking fund needs to be reserved as a revenue stream to pay off a bond, which is probably the only way the city could build the Village Entrance.

The parking fund was originally earmarked to be used for parking and to subsidize the city transit system. Starting in the early 1990s, a $700,000 transfer from the fund has been used to augment the general fund, which is spent at the discretion of the council.

“There are no legal restrictions on the parking fund,” Frank said. “You can use it anyway you want.”

After the transfer, the fund nets between $1.2- and $1.3 million a year.

Schneider also urged an increase in the city’s 10% reserve fund.

“The 10% reserve in the landslide was used up in a week,” Schneider said. “What can we do to take it from 10% to 20%?’

Egly said it was simple: the council had to curb its spending.

The approved budget will go into effect July 1.