Council Boosts District Funding

By Erica Williams
Staff Writer

June 18 -- School advocates breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday night after the City Council voted 5 to 1 to pump an additional $2.25 million into the cash-strapped school district, capping a relentless months-long lobbying effort to double the City’s funding to the schools.

The allocation was part of a $353.7 million budget adopted by the City Council that bridges a $16.1 million shortfall by making $7 million in ongoing cuts, generating an additional $5.2 million by increasing fines, fees and parking meter rates and imposing other measures.

The increased funding to the local schools will come from the City’s $4.1 million pot of one-time funds culled from savings realized by not filling vacant positions in the current fiscal year.

While the increase is not all that proponents demanded, it hikes the City’s total contribution to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for the upcoming school year to $5.25 million -- 75 percent more than the City’s ongoing $3 million annual commitment.

Faced with a deficit in the general fund that is likely to grow, the council approved the increase after an hour-long debate that followed a boisterous rally of about 1,000 district supporters on the City Hall lawn and two hours of public testimony in the council chambers. (Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown recused himself because he is contracted by the district.)

“It’s very, very clear to me that this is a very important community priority,” said Councilman Ken Genser, who made an initial motion to commit $2.5 million.

“I truly believe that the reason many of us are in this ‘business’ is for a better future,” Genser said. “We as a community need to make sure our kids are raised and educated properly.”

Genser later amended his initial motion to $2.25 million to win passage after some on the council balked at approving anything approaching $3 million given the City’s fiscal crisis and City Manager Susan McCarthy’s warnings against increased funding earlier this year.

The infusion of cash -- coupled with the $6.5 million a year in parcel tax funds from Measure S -- will help the district bridge most of its $13.7 million budget gap resulting from an historic $38 billion fissure in the state budget that has left schools across California scrambling for cash.

Saying he “strongly supported” increased funding for local schools, Genser led the council in a debate that was characterized by much hand-wringing and peppered by some members’ defense of City spending.

“Although it is not traditional for cities to fund education in California,” Genser said, “I think of us as a fairly unique community. We view the role of the City in many ways as broader than many other cities do and that includes funding for education.”

But Councilwoman Pam O’Connor wasn’t buying Genser’s argument.

“Well, I don’t support that,” she said of Genser’s initial motion for $2.5 million, pointing out that last year the school district received what was to be a one-time appropriation of $1.5 million in additional funds from the City.

“All of a sudden the $1.5 million in one-time monies we gave last year is being expanded to be $2.5 million one-time this year,” O’Connor said. “I think that it is seen as an ongoing revenue stream. I just think we’re going down a serious path of using one-time funds for ongoing expenses.”

The City’s responsibility, O’Connor said, was to provide for safety and security for kids when they go to school, libraries, and after school and youth programs -- but not to provide ongoing funds to the schools.

Although O’Connor said during deliberations that she was open to approving a smaller boost in one-time monies, she added that “$2.5 million is just too much.” In the end she rejected the $2.25 million compromise.

Councilman Herb Katz offered the strongest support (and briefest comments) for increased school funding, even offering to amend Genser’s motion and up the contribution to $3 million.

“I think it’s important we do this on a one-time basis,” Katz said, “and I think it’s highly important that we never forget what we get for education.

“We get students and citizens that hopefully won’t need or rely on the government to support them or for the police to catch them,” he said. “That they can be useful citizens -- in the long run we really help and save ourselves.”

Councilman Michael Feinstein, typically one of the most progressive members on the dais, said he was “very uncomfortable” with giving more than the City could afford. “We don’t have the kind of money we used to have.”

He offered a substitute motion to give the schools $2 million in additional funding, a motion that was ultimately defeated with Genser and Katz saying it was not enough and O’Connor saying it was too much.

Feinstein rattled off a litany of reasons that he said has contributed to inadequate funding of schools -- from corporate welfare and the military industrial complex to the passage of Prop 13 and 218 in California. Although he wanted to commit more to the district, Feinstein said, the budget situation was too dire and “is not going to turn around in the short-term.”

He pointed out that one-time funds available to the council now would not be there in future years. “The ‘paradigm shift’ in Santa Monica,” he said, “is that the gravy train is over.”

Feinstein urged the council not to be shortsighted by relying on one-time funds and sacrificing the City’s premium AAA bond rating that saves the City millions in debt service funds.

“I don’t think we want to abandon years of sound financial practice and start cannibalizing ourselves the way the state government is for a variety of political reasons,” he said.

Mayor Richard Bloom agreed. “Maintaining fiscal stability in the community is critical” to stave off “economic disaster” similar to what the state is now experiencing, he said.

(On Monday investment banking firms on Wall Street downgraded the state’s once stellar bond rating to near junk status.)

The Mayor also pointed out that one-time funds come from not filling positions, a situation that “is not going to repeat itself.” Bloom said he would vote for $2 million, though it was not enough. Eventually he voted for the compromise $2.25.

“There is no lack of desire on this council,” Bloom added. “But we need to try and put ourselves in a place where we can sustain funding because I would like to be able to do it next year because we clearly set this out as a responsibility we want to undertake.”

Councilman Bob Holbrook, who voted to increase school funding, said he and many of his constituents “don’t think that Malibu, which gave $200,000 to the district last year, has done its share.

“We have 80 percent of the kids attending school here and they have 20 percent there,” he said. “If we were getting 20 percent action from that end of the district,” he added, “I think the budget gap would be a lot smaller or wouldn’t be there at all.”

Holbrook wondered aloud why Malibu “which is widely viewed as one of the wealthiest communities in the world (in terms of income levels), is one of the poorest communities for government municipal funds. It’s hard to understand.”

“We are not the wealthy city that a lot of people make us out to be,” Holbrook said. “We’ve just managed the city well with the appropriate amount of business.”

During the public comment period 40 people addressed the council on a host of funding issues -- from schools to the arts and youth programs.

John Petz, an education activist called the schools “the cradle of social justice” and asked the council to up its contribution to local schools by $3.5 million.

“In order to do what is needed for the schools it really requires sort of paradigm shift,” Petz said. “You can’t just look at this as just another in a long line of requests.

“The resolve in this community that’s come together around education is real, it’s abiding and it will continue,” Petz added, threatening to take the issue of ongoing funding to the schools to the ballot box if the council didn’t comply.

“Why didn’t Proposition S ask for the revenue source it needed to fund the schools?” O’Connor asked Petz.

“For the same reason that we don’t go to individuals and ask them to privately fund the fire department, the police department, the water department,” Petz replied. “Because it’s a public venture, and it’s funded by the public through public money.”

Superintendent John Deasy said that even with the passage of Measure S, “We are not whole.”

“I think there was a time,” Deasy added “when as a community we dreamed of bigger and better educational opportunities for children. We are now faced simply with trying to hold on to what we once had.”

Asked by Holbrook if school advocates had requested funding from Malibu, Deasy said the school district had recently requested $2 million “over period of years” and had just entered a joint-use agreement with the city modeled on the one with Santa Monica.

Cheri Orgel, outgoing PTA Council president, unfurled a petition banner of more than 900 signatures from supporters who attended the rally earlier calling on the council to double its funding for local schools.

“The school funding crisis was not of our own making,” Orgel said, adding that many in the community were already working to develop ongoing solutions to the problem of inadequate funding of schools.