Vote split on city budget
By Jesse Phelps

Over the objections of two council members, the final general fund budget for fiscal year 2003-2004 was approved in a split vote in council chambers on Tuesday night. The new general fund budget predicts revenues for the coming year to total $5,190,400 and predicts expenditures at $5,944,400, a shortfall of $754,000 that will need to be made up through the use of general fund reserves.
Last year, a balanced general fund budget came in at about $5.8 million in terms of both revenues and expenditures.

Adhering to recommendations from the council outlined at its meeting on June 10, City Manager Dan Singer managed to lessen the amount of money that the city will take from the reserves by more than $50,000 over the last two weeks by cutting services and support to local agencies and city departments and increasing fees.

Among the specific cuts added after the preliminary budget session were the loss of the city's general services department and the three jobs associated with it; reductions in support to Ojai Day, the Visitor Bureau, the Ojai Valley Museum and the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation and associated projects; reductions in expenditures such as tree maintenance, building and vehicle maintenance and training expenses for city employees; and increases in recreation and facility use fees.

Tom Triplett, Ojai's full-time motorcycle officer, was on the hot seat but survived the present round of cuts. Other programs and services narrowly surviving the final cut round included earthquake coverage for city buildings, the final $20,000 of museum funding (it was cut 20 percent, by $5,000), technology plan and Web site upgrades and city employee cost of living upgrades.

Singer prepared a thorough six page staff report, which took nearly half an hour to get through, and given that the council meeting also incorporated three assessment district votes, by the time the budget came up for discussion, council seemed ready to vote on it without much comment.

That didn't stop council member David Bury, who became the most adamant detractor. He felt that the loss of three jobs didn't fit his concept of sharing the pain, saying he found it unfair to put people out of work. He said he would have been more vocal about the issue sooner had he understood that jobs were on the chopping block.

"I must not have read between the lines," said Bury. "I'm not comfortable with the concept of eliminating staff to achieve our goals."
The other dissenting vote came from councilwoman Carol Smith, who felt that Triplett's $120,000 per year cost to the city was an unnecessary expenditure this year and said she would like to see that money added back into the reserve supply.

Mayor Pro-Tem Sue Horgan wondered about the possibility of letting Triplett go at some point down the line, should the financial waters become even more perilous.

Police chief Gary Pentis said that would be a possibility and said the city would maintain the cycle, which it bought with grant funding. Getting Triplett back, however, would be more difficult, according to Pentis, who also pointed out that should he leave for another community, Ojai would have spent the money to train him for another community's benefit.

In the end, the city adhered to its own policy regarding general fund reserves, which stipulates a minimum 50 percent reserve fund balance based on the fiscal year operating budget.

"As general fund expenditures for 2003-2004 are projected to be just above $5.9 million," said Singer, "The general fund reserve must thereby maintain a minimum $2.97 million in un-obligated funds."

Because the current city reserves stand at $3.75 million, Singer said that the use of up to $755,000 could be accommodated without violating the city's resolution, making the adopted budget's requirement of $754,000 to backfill losses from transient occupancy taxes lost due to the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa's expansion and remodel acceptable in the eyes of most council members.

The city faces its current financial struggles without the hope of much aid from the state, which Horgan described as a "3000-pound elephant we've been waiting to sit on us." Singer pointed to lobbying and partisan squabbling at the state level and said, "It's a pretty sad state of affairs up in the capitol."

Horgan, who two weeks ago seemed the staunchest adversary to the initial budget, was somewhat assuaged by the staff's two-year financial forecast, which anticipates that when the inn remodel is finished, the city will be able to balance its budget and avoid dipping further into reserves.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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