City Council: Monday meeting
preclude to final budget adoption

June 12, 2015
Santa Paula News

The City Council will take a final swipe at the budget Monday, a preclude to adopting Santa Paula’s financial plan for Fiscal Year 2015-2016 at a special meeting planned for the end of the month.

The June 15 meeting will start at 5 p.m. with a closed session in the City Hall Administration Conference Room to discuss labor negotiations and the ongoing evaluation of City Manager Jaime Fontes’ job performance.

The meeting will be continued to 6:30 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers and broadcast live by Time Warner Cable Channel 10 and live-streamed on the city’s website. The session will be rerun according to Time Warner’s schedule and archived on the city’s website for viewing on demand.

There will be a presentation by Mark Lawler, General Manager of the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, which operates the Toland Road Landfill.

An item of interest on the Consent Calendar, those matters of business deemed routine is the rejection of the bid for the Harding Park Game Board installation project. Crown Disposal gifted the 8 x 20 foot electric board to the park but the lone bidder for its installation is being rejected.

Items of interest on the order of council business include a Born Learning Trail at Las Piedras Park. 

Interactive educational opportunities for children 3 to 5 years old is the goal of the program which features bilingual signage that prompts learning moments as well as physical activity and developmental progress. There is no cost to the city for the program, which is funded by United Way and First Five.

The council will also discuss adopting a resolution supporting the governor’s and state water resources control board’s resolution on the drought and mandated water conservation measures. 

Other business includes designating a voting delegate to the League of California Cities annual conference  later this year and appointing two members to the Planning Commission — incumbent Ike Ikerd and newcomer Fred Wacker — to serve four-year terms.

The final item will be the continuing public workshop and discussion on the barely balanced budget that has to move forward without the revenues it expected from the again-delayed Limoneira East Area 1 and 2 projects.

“Due to exigent circumstances,” according to the staff report, “last year’s high use of overtime to back-fill positions and to provide coverage in police and fire services was higher than anticipated. In addition, the current market trend of increases in health care insurance and retirement costs for employees is outpacing general revenues,” to the city.

The report notes, “There was one-time revenue from the transfer of the Solid Waste Franchise in the amount of $153,000 that was deposited in the General Fund.”

Three firefighters injured in the November 18 explosions and fire at Santa Clara Waste Water/Green Compass facility are still out on disability and two other firefighters are on injury leave creating a deficit of about $400,000 for uncompensated costs to the city.

The same with the police department where four officers are presently out on injuries that created a $263,000 department budget deficit.

The proposed FY 2015-2016 General Fund budget is $14.2 million including approximately $200,000 left over from the ending fiscal year and more than $36 million for city utility enterprises, which are self funding.

One discordant budget note is that although property tax revenue is projected to rise by about $196,000, sales tax revenue is expected to fall by about $174,000.





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