State budget brings bad news for city
By Jesse Phelps

Though the state of California has finally passed a budget for the current fiscal year, the news isn't all wine and roses for cities like Ojai. At least, that's the tune being sung by city manager Dan Singer.

In a report to the City Council on Tuesday night, Singer painted a grim picture of Sacramento, saying that state legislators are attempting to solve the current budget crisis on the backs of cities and counties. Their latest methods, he proclaimed, have amounted to a series of "one-time gimmicks, rollovers and shell-games that did absolutely nothing to solve the fundamental structural fiscal problems facing California."

As a result of the turmoil to the north, Singer said, Ojai will feel three significant impacts. First, the city will receive only half of its monthly sales tax revenues. The state says it will backfill the borrowed cash later with property tax monies, but Ojai stands to lose interest payments on half a million dollars over the course of the year.
The loss of three months worth of Vehicle License Fee revenues - which the state plans to pay back in 2006 - and impending redevelopment cuts totaling $40,000 round out the painful new realities for Ojai.

The current lack of vehicle license fee payments mean a $90,000 loss to the city, said Singer. A total unanticipated shortfall of $140,000 can be dealt with, he said, in three ways, each seemingly less desirable than the last.

The city could limit spending with further cutbacks to city services. Specifically in the cross-hairs, once again, were motorcycle officer Tom Triplett and funding for outside agencies. A hiring freeze was also suggested.

Earlier this year, council started on what it hopes is the path to solving its deficit when it approved the removal of its general services department, the elimination of three jobs. It also passed a budget that conservatively sliced into its funding for such outside agencies as the museum and the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation.

At that time council also elected to dip into its general fund reserves, a surplus of about $1.5 million from headier days, to the tune of $754,000. A second option for the current situation, said Singer, would be to further deplete that emergency stash.

Or, he said, council could wait and see if some potential offsets might be realized. The most likely source, he said, would be fees from building upgrades and new developments.

Predictably, the council members agreed to a man that sucking more cash from the general fund reserves was a bad option. In another non-surprise, they split on which services should be the first to go.
Councilwoman Rae Hanstad adamantly opposed various attempts to put Triplett in the firing line. "I'll continue to support him as long as I can," she said. Triplett's advocates say he is irreplaceable as a traffic monitor, freeing up his fellow officers for more pressing duties.

His detractors, who have included at various times councilwoman Carol Smith and community activist and attorney Leonard Klaif, point to his salary as seemingly the easiest way to find a reasonable amount of money to reallocate.

For now, the council elected not to take action but to see how the finances play out over the next several months. The issue will resurface on a subsequent council agenda, sometime before January, Singer said. And with prospects growing cloudier every day in Sacramento, help may be even further away.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

Back to the news