468. City Hits Reserves To Maintain Budget, 1991 El Cerrito

Published news story by Lurene K. Helzer, June 27, 1991, The Journal, “City hits reserves to maintain budget; Council avoids further cuts in tight budget”. This newspaper went to readers in the East Bay communities of Albany, El Cerrito and Kensington. Photos by Tina Dauterman.

Lurene's email in 2014: lurenexyz@gmail.com


I admit this story is not a tempting diversion today, but I enjoy revisiting these old East Bay city budget jobs. I sometimes find the current budget for the concerned city, compare costs. I did this quickly today, March 31, 2010, and was delighted to see El Cerrito had continued many of its redevelopment programs, even improved them.


Budget stories might seem terribly boring, but municipal finance can sometimes require skills of sports reporting or comedy writing. Readers/journalism students can find their own examples, given U.S. financial events of the last few years:


EL CERRITO — The City Council passed the proposed 1991-92 budget June 17 without raising the Landscape and Lighting Assessment fee or making substantial cuts. Some citizens, however, spoke against the funding plan.

NEW TAXES

The council decided to leave the Landscape and Lighting Assessment at its present rate of $72 per year, but is expected to impose a new Utility Users Tax June 24.

The idea of a higher assessment for landscape and lighting enraged some of those at the meeting, but received support from others who said the money was needed for park improvements.

“Are you going to tax me right out of this city?” asked an angry John Sawers of El Cerrito. Sawers, pointing to council members, promised not to vote for them again.

But comments in support of the increase surfaced. “It’s necessary. We need to hold the gains we’ve made (in our parks),” said Dan Feudenthal of El Cerrito.

After hearing comments, all council members voted, somewhat reluctantly, against the increase. “I will vote against this one measure this year, because it seems to have caused a lot of enmity,” said councilmember Jean Siri.

With no cutbacks, the city will spend more than it receives in revenues. El Cerrito will dip into reserves once again to balance the budget.

Before the June 17 meeting, department heads were asked to show where they would cut in budgets if needed. Flipcharts were brought out during the meeting to show how 7 to 10 percent cuts could be made in each department of the city and what the advantages and disadvantages would be of each cut.

Police Chief Dan Givens proposed eliminating two traffic officers to save $122,000. He gave a detailed explanation of how the cut would hurt the city. For example, fewer officers might increase overtime and violate minimum staffing requirements, Givens said.

The fire department proposed closing one of El Cerrito’s fire stations, but warned that it would mean an increased response time to fire calls.

After all department heads made their recommendations, Pokorny, while reserving his opinion, said he couldn’t truly recommend any of the cuts. “This is a lean organization,” he said.

After the presentation on cuts, community activist Sandy Kerr addressed the council. He began by saying he had prepared for his speech by researching the words of “great philosophers.” Then, he quoted 1930s film star Mae West. “When choosing between two evils, I like to choose the one I never tried,” Kerr said, referring to cuts in the budget.

Kerr then began hurling angry remarks at the council. He said the city manager was “loose with numbers and dollars” and said the city had not made a reasonable effort to look for ways of cutting the budget.

Council members and city staff members, already angry about previous public comments Kerr had made about the city’s management, sat silently. Minutes later, as Kerr began to “challenge” Mayor Kathie Kosel to make cuts, Councilmember Bob Bacon retorted that Kerr would “challenge anyone,” and tersely criticized his confrontational tactics.

The council then closed the public hearing and decided not to make cuts, although they agreed some of the suggestions – like closing El Cerrito’s public pool during the winter – could be followed some time in the future.

HOPED FOR CUTS

Council members discussed the budget in a meeting on Saturday preceding the council session. “What I would like to see on Monday night are some options…with the goal of reducing the deficit,” Bob Bacon said then.

“If you suppress salaries synthetically below the market rate, you end up with a community that’s getting something for nothing and doesn’t appreciate it,” Bacon said.

City Manager Gary Pokorny said during that meeting that sales tax revenues are subject ot fluctuations more than other sources of revenue.

The 1991-92 budget, after the previously estimated salary increases are subtracted, totals $14,457,553. Last year, the budget totaled $11,681,483. Over half of the $2,776,070 increase is because the redevelopment agency’s budget is now included with the city’s budget, city officials pointed out. However, the agency’s budget, listed as $1,499,277 this fiscal year, does not depend on normal city revenues.

BIG INCREASES

One of the most dramatic cost increases is in insurance costs, which went from $164,000 last year to over $400,000 this fiscal year – an increase of over $200,000, Administrative Manager Jim Randall said.

But salary increases originally written into the budget, which were rough estimates, were removed, shaving about $80,000 off the final budget.

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