Staff layoffs, a 1 percent utility tax, elimination of adult sports programs, and fee increases for child care, youth sports and planning review services are on the list of Menlo Park city staff-recommended budget cuts geared toward avoiding a projected $2.9 million shortfall.
The list of suggested cuts and revenue increases will be reviewed by the City Council at its March 28 meeting, when council members will discuss fiscal priorities for the 2006-07 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
The priority-setting session — a kickoff for the budget-crafting process — will be held at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at the Civic Center, between Alma and Laurel streets.
Staff’s suggestions are generally based on the results of a community-wide survey and three budget workshops held earlier this year, where participating residents acted as “mini-city councils” and decided how to eliminate the projected shortfall.
The council will also review the budget workshop report at the meeting.
Utility tax
About $800,000 of the projected shortfall can be eliminated with a 1 percent utility tax, according to staff.The tax would cost a household with $175 in monthly utility bills — for electricity, gas, cable, TV, phone and water — an additional $21 a year.
The council chose not to put a utility tax on the June ballot, citing time constraints and the fact that a June vote would require a two-thirds voter approval because it would have to be a special-purpose tax. Revenue from such a tax must be limited to a specific purpose, such as police services.
On the other hand, a general-purpose tax can be passed by a simple majority. But such a tax can be voted on only in November elections, and only when seats on the council are on the ballot — a condition that will be met this November.
About 89 percent of the budget workshop groups used a utility tax of at least 1 percent to balance the budget.
But despite strong support for the tax in the community budget workshops, Councilwoman Mickie Winkler said the council should proceed carefully. She said she is open to the tax, but she’s not ready to get behind it just yet.
“I’m not inclined to support a tax that supports our operating expenses,” she said. “I’m more comfortable with a tax or a bond measure that supports our infrastructure rather than our operating expenses.”
She also said a utility tax isn’t “business-friendly.”
Consolidating jobs
Thirteen full-time city employee positions could be directly impacted by staff’s suggestions, and eight of them are positions currently filled.The staff is recommending that the city save about $82,000 by reducing vehicle repairs and maintenance, but doing so eliminates the position of Don Weber, one of two staff auto mechanics.
Eliminating two positions in the engineering and city manager’s offices would also save the city a combined $94,000.
Five positions in the community services department could also be impacted, although the extent of the impact and what positions are yet to be determined.
The city could also save $186,000 annually if a vacant police management position is eliminated, and $127,000 annually if a vacant community services department manager position is left empty, according to staff.
Child care options
Staff also recommends that the council eliminate about $502,000 of the projected shortfall through various fee increases to city services, including the Burgess school-age and preschool child care programs and the Belle Haven child care program.Ms. Winkler said she would have liked to see more suggestions for outsourcing city services in order to avoid rate increases — an approach that a local child care specialist said he plans to present at the priority-setting session.
Ty Durekas, co-founder and CEO of Children’s Creative Learning Centers, a Sunnyvale-based for-profit child care company, said he plans to urge council members to consider privatizing both Burgess child care programs to avoid fee increases. Both programs are slated to move into the new children’s center building, in the Civic Center, in April.
Staff is suggesting a different method for making the Belle Haven child care program more cost-efficient. Restructuring that program to “drop-in recreation” was on a list of proposed cuts suggested at the budget workshops, but residents of Belle Haven — a predominantly low-income neighborhood east of U.S. 101 — flooded a January council meeting and the budget workshops to oppose the potential cuts.
Rather than restructuring the program, staff is proposing raising fees to non-residents. The fee hike would raise fees 628 percent for families paying the reduced rate. About 25 percent of the workshop groups chose to raise fees for non-residents.
Suggested fee increases for planning review, youth sports, gymnastics and other services correspond to suggestions made by residents in both the survey and workshops.
Eliminating the adult sports program is also on the table, a measure that would save the city $98,000 a year. About 57 percent of the workshop groups favored eliminating the program.
INFORMATION
To read the full list of staff recommendations, go to menlopark.org, select “City Council” and choose the March 28 council agenda. The council’s priority-setting session will be broadcast on local cable Channel 26, and streamed online. To watch the meeting online, go to menlopark.org, select “City Council” and choose “Watch council meetings.”
