Menlo Park: Don't cut police, storm drain services, residents tell city Menlo Park: Don't cut police, storm drain services, residents tell city (January 21, 2004)

** Respondents would be most willing to stop televising council meetings, cut adult sports.

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

In a Menlo Park survey asking residents to choose which city services they'd be most and least amenable to cutting, three services drew a wealth of defenders.

About 91 percent of the respondents said that crime investigation should not be cut. The two next-highest figures were 85 percent for police patrol services and 82 percent for storm drain system maintenance, city spokesman J. Michael Gonzales said.

Mailed out to the city's 15,501 households in November, the survey yielded 1,064 responses, or a 6.8 percent response rate, Mr. Gonzales said. It asked residents to rank 32 services, choosing whether they should be reduced now, reduced later, or not cut at all.

Two city services earned the dubious honor of scoring highest in the "reduction now" category. About 73 percent of respondents chose the airing of City Council meetings on local cable television, while 66 percent picked adult sports.

About half of the respondents also said that city concerts and celebrations should be considered for immediate budget cuts.

The survey results were announced January 17 at a community meeting in the Burgess Recreation Center to officially kick off the budget process for 2004-05. After a January 31 goal-setting workshop and several spring hearings, the City Council is scheduled to adopt the budget on June 22.

Menlo Park is facing its fourth straight year of reductions to its budget, said Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour, who led the meeting.

Assuming that the city loses $326,000 in property taxes to the state, as is the plan under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal, Menlo Park is facing a $1.5 million budget shortfall next fiscal year, she said. The city's general fund budget is roughly $26 million.

Saturday's community meeting, which drew about 25 people, was the first of three planned to allow residents to tell officials what service cuts they'd support or oppose.

Resident Mary Dumont called the survey "misleading" because it didn't say how much is spent on each item. "If people knew we were spending 29 percent of the budget on the police department, would they want to not cut it?" she asked.

David Speer, a 2002 council candidate, criticized the survey for focusing more on police and library services, rather than the "Administrative Services" section of the budget.

That section includes the city manager's office, city clerk, and human resources, none of which was in the survey.

"This was a difficult list to put together," Mr. Gonzales responded.

After the meeting, he said some of the items in the survey are housed in administrative services, including the city Web site. The salaries of city employees were not included, he said, because "the survey was intended to find out about services, not to be an assessment of how departments are staffed."

Salaries and benefits, though, could be a hot topic soon as officials renegotiate expiring union contracts with Menlo Park employees, Ms. Seymour said. For example, a contract with the police department expires in June, she said.

Several residents also provided ideas for helping ease budget woes, with many focusing on boosting revenue.

One man suggested that drivers be once more charged the same vehicle license fees they paid before the state reduced the amount in 1998. This time, though, the fees would be collected at the city level and spent only in Menlo Park, he said.

With sales tax revenue from businesses totaling the highest percentage -- 26 percent -- of the city's budget, Tom McDonough, a member of the city's Library Commission, proposed a partnership between the library and local businesses to help boost sales.

Library patrons could get stickers on the backs of their library cards; at cooperating businesses, they could show them to get a discount. This could encourage people to shop in Menlo Park, he said.
INFORMATION

Meetings to allow residents to voice opinions about cuts to city services are scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, January 29, at the Onetta Harris Community Center at 100 Terminal Ave.; and 7 p.m. Wednesday, January 28, at the St. Raymond Church Parish Center at 1100 Santa Cruz Ave. Survey results are available at menlopark.org.

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