Politics & Government

New Budget Cuts Set in Motion

City Council approves 'mid-cycle amendments' in order to meet a nearly $8 million shortfall.

Fiscal Year 2011 begins July 1, and that means the San Mateo City Council had lots of budget-keeping to do at its Monday meeting – most notably, some tinkering with the city’s $136 million budget for the coming fiscal year.

And like most budget decisions these days, the “mid-cycle amendments” approved last night came with some cuts.

According to city finance director Dave Culver, San Mateo’s two-year budget, approved in June 2010, was “made before the full impact of the economic recession could be estimated.” The result is an estimated budget gap of about $7.9 million.

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In order to “provide a financially stable future,” he told council members, a few cost-cutting measures must be made.

The result is cuts to city services and public works, as well as to city employees’ compensation packages – and many of those cuts are already in motion, officials said.

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For example, on Monday night Sheila Canzian, the city’s director of parks and recreation, talked briefly with council members about “the $25,000 that we are currently saving at through cuts to the community center’s hours. “In addition to that we are also not trimming trees in San Mateo, (and) we are not running a lot of teen programs,” she said.

By the Numbers

Culver explained that the city’s general fund is $78.2 million, and the rest of its operating budget is $38.26 million – adding up to a total operating budget of $116.4 million.

Then there’s another $6.8 million for capital improvement projects. “That’s mostly sewer, but it’s (also) street rehab, sidewalks, all kinds of stuff,” Culver told Patch on Tuesday.

That brings the budget up to $123.2 million. Then there’s the city’s , or RDA, with a budget of about $12.8 million. But like all other California cities, San Mateo is unable to count on that money due to a hard-fought proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown to eliminate RDAs entirely. Negotiations over that point continue in Sacramento.

With the uncertain RDA funds added in, the city’s “total-total” budget, Culver said, is about $136.1 million.

Balancing the Budget

On Monday night, however, city leaders were mostly focused on the $78.2 million general fund, which was $7.9 million over budget – and council members passed several measures in an effort to balance that budget.

“We’ve brought that number down to equal our revenues by doing a number of things,” Culver said on Tuesday. Those things include suspending capital improvement projects, saving $2.5 million, and making cuts in department spending, saving another $2.5 million. The specific departmental cuts are “yet to be determined,” he said, but might include, “for example, the discussion about the King Center.”

“Last but not least,” Culver said, “we’re assuming the budget will yield $2.6 million in employee cost reductions.”

Compensation Cuts

Some of those employee cost reductions have already been approved – including last night, when council members agreed to implement work furloughs, or even the elimination of permanent positions, to workers in the San Mateo City Employee Association (SMCEA) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

“This has been hard on all of us. It’s been a lot of work, and not all that comfortable all the time,” said Robert Fink, president of the SMCEA, to council members. “So I want to thank you all for being cooperative.”

With that, the council members unanimously approved the employee compensation cuts in two separate items.

“Our employees have stepped up to the plate and done their share,” said council member Brandt Grotte. “They are saving jobs so that we can continue to service the community.”

Department heads at a previous meeting, and negotiations are in the works with the city’s safety personnel. “The jury’s still out on what will happen there,” Culver said.

He added, “76 percent of our budget is salaries and benefits. I think meaningful cost sharing is the most effective strategy.”


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