Council hashes out budget cuts
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Councilman Gary Monahan proposed more than a dozen new cuts to Costa Mesa’s budget Tuesday night that he said would save the city $650,000, citing fears that the economy may not rebound and could get worse.
By press time, the council had not adopted a budget officially, but a tentative budget that the council approved earlier this year relies on layoffs, salary and benefit cuts, and steep program and service reductions to eliminate most of a $19-million projected budget deficit.
Even with the approved measures, the city will still draw down the majority of its remaining unrestricted operating reserves — about $5 million — almost eliminating them completely to balance the budget. Without cutting more out of the budget, the city could face bankruptcy, Monahan said.
“Some of you are going to think I’m heartless, and I’m sorry,” he said, “but this is scary.”
Most of the largest cuts that Monahan proposed — eliminating one of the city’s three animal control officers, eliminating two of the city’s eight code enforcement officers, doing away with independent, city-run after-school programs at Pomona and Davis elementary schools, and eliminating city-run youth basketball and football programs — narrowly failed.
The stiffest opposition came from Councilwoman Katrina Foley and Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece.
Foley accused Mansoor and Monahan of “ruining our city,” and called them “ignorant.” Mansoor fired back by calling Foley’s interruptions “out of order,” and accused her of “rudeness” and “name calling.”
At the outset of the debate, Foley and Leece voted to approve the budget without any amendments, saying that it would be irresponsible to make cuts so late in the process.
“Staff has already gone through and produced a balanced budget for us, and I think we should give them a chance to make this budget work. I don’t think we should be up here making little changes,” Foley said, adding that she thought Orange County would come out of the recession sooner than other regions.
Some of Monahan’s measures passed. City officials will no longer be provided free dinners before meetings (estimated savings $13,000). Training and professional development for council members was eliminated (estimated savings $10,000).
The city’s contribution to a sister-city program, in which students from Australia visit Costa Mesa while Costa Mesa students visit Australia, will be suspended (estimated savings $10,000).
Neighbors for Neighbors, a community volunteer home revitalization program, will be eliminated (estimated savings more than $20,000).
Councilman Eric Bever was the swing vote for most of the proposals.
Bever also suggested a variant of Monahan’s proposal to eliminate city-run basketball and football programs — asking users to pay half the cost of the programs instead of having them subsidized by the city — which passed.
Major tenants of Costa Mesa’s budget-balancing strategy:
23 layoffs: $6.3 million
5% across the board pay cuts: $3.6 million
Early retirement incentives: $3.5 million
Reduction in overtime: $1 million
Drawing out of reserves: about $5 million
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