City Begins Setting Budget Priorities: The First Study Session

By Teresa Rochester

Revitalized alleys, stable bluffs, online reading, a new pool for swimming and a lot more fire inspections.

Those were among the goals and budgetary wish lists for the 2000-2001 fiscal year outlined by half a dozen department heads during a City Council Budget Study Session Tuesday night.

The sessions give council members the chance to ask questions of the various departments and serves as a report card for the city before the council adopts the final budget in June.

Here is a breakdown by department of some of the highlights of the proposed budget for fiscal year 2000-2001 detailed Tuesday night:

Fire, $15 million:

For the second year in a row, Fire Chief Ettore Berardinelli elicited oohs and aahs from the crowd with his high-tech, visually spiffy presentation, which even included a City TV news broadcast via his laptop on the success of this year's highly touted thermal imaging camera that measures differences in temperature.

Flashy graphics detailed the departments goals for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, that include the development and implementation by October 2001 of an enhanced Fire and Life Safety Public Education. The department also expects to increase its number of multi-family fire inspections from this year's 2,400 to 4,000.

The bulk of the department's $15 million budget will go to salaries and wages to the tune of $11.775 million. Supplies and expenses are expected to run the department $753,800 -- $39,600 less than this year.

Library, $6.3 million:

Proving that a librarian's job extends far beyond the card catalog, Library director Winnie Allard told the council that the city's libraries will continue to feed the public's appetite for cyberspace by adding 10 new computers during the new fiscal year.

The Main Library Services Division will design a new Internet site to help out parents and children with electronic resources. The library will also provide teacher orientation training and materials on library services and electronic resources.

Allard stresses the fact that despite their high tech offerings the city's libraries are first and foremost book libraries. As a founding member of the new "California Center for the Book" -- the local branch of the Center started in the Library of Congress -- the library will provide special programming in support of books and literacy.

Improvements at several branch libraries are scheduled to begin in September 2000. The construction will likely lead to the closure of the Montana Avenue and Fairview branches. Once completed however, the Montana Avenue branch will have a new community meeting room. It is currently the only library in the city without one.

Capital Improvement Programs, $77.6 million:

Revitalized alleys, stable bluffs, a municipal swimming pool, and new park restrooms are just a handful of the 80 capital improvement programs proposed in the new budget. If approved they will join the 232 capital improvement projects currently underway in the city.

Calling it a case of balancing priorities, Katie Lichtig, who will be leaving her post as assistant to the city manager in several months, detailed the upcoming year's capital projects and those that have been set aside for another year.

The budget calls for $4.7 million for the Airport Park Expansion, $2 million for annual street resurfacing and sidewalk repair, $1.5 million for the stabilization of Palisades Park's bluffs and $4.8 million for the downtown area transit mall.

Projects not making this years cut include the parks and recreation master plan, portions of seismic upgrades of parking structures, 415 PCH, Main Street streetscape, the Civic Center parking structure, the downtown streetscape and the City Yards master plan.

"The number of projects and the complexity of the projects had stretched the capacity of staff," Lichtig said, adding that the unmet projects would require approximately $196.1 million.

Mayor Ken Genser pointed out that the city may need to move a little faster on the Civic Center parking lot, since the metered parking at City Hall will soon be eliminated once construction of the Public Safety Building gets underway.

Lichtig responded that the city has 18 months before the start of construction and that city staff is currently looking at parking plans along Main Street.

City Clerk's Office, $1.788 million:

It was once simply known as the City Clerk's Office, but today it's the newly named Records and Election Services.

"Another department whose name I won't remember," quipped Genser.

Making good on her promise to keep her presentation short, City Clerk Maria Stewart reminded the council that this is an election year and that three initiatives are scheduled to be on the November ballot.

Stewart said her department is continuing its electronic vault project by currently inputting all the information presented at City Council meetings during the past year. The project, Stewart said, will ultimately reach back 15 to 20 years.

City Attorney, $5.305 million:

Driving home the point that city staff is kept busy, City Attorney Marsha Moutrie told the council that her office writes an average of 32 ordinances a year.

"We've been extremely busy this year," said Moutrie. "There's a limit to what we can do about efficiency."

To increase efficiency, Moutrie told the council that her office needs half a receptionist, a request that prompted laughter from the crowd. The part-time receptionist would handle phones while the full-time receptionist is away from the desk.

Moutire said the department's goals for the upcoming fiscal year include cracking down on nuisance liquor stores, domestic violence and elder and child abuse. Moutrie also touted her office's enforcement of the smoking ban in bars. She said that a recent sweep by city code enforcers found that no one was smoking in bars.

Personnel, $1.8 million:

The city's Personnel Department will be getting two new full-time employees in the new fiscal year. The result will be a $175, 600 increase in the money the department spends on salaries and wages.

Personnel employees told the council that they plan to make improvements over a three-year period to the Human Resources Intranet, an internal version of the Internet. The Intranet will make available job postings and descriptions, application forms, tuition reimbursement forms, evaluation forms and other documents.

Workshops focusing on developing and enhancing supervisory and management skills will continue as part of the ongoing employee training. Training will also be provided in areas of diversity, violence in the workplace, CPR and first aid.