Sacramento City Council faces 'brutal' budget proposal
Published: Wednesday, May. 4, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 3B
"Painful" and "brutal" were terms Sacramento City Council members used to describe the city's proposed 2011-12 budget, including general fund expenditures that officials said must be reduced by $39 million.
The $812 million proposed budget includes a $362 million general fund and $450 million in enterprise funds.
But Bill Edgar, interim city manager, said only $222 million of the general fund is discretionary.
Edgar recalled that he prepared his first budget for the city in 1978, following the approval of Proposition 13.
"This budget is four times worse," he said.
This year's budget hearings, leading to budget adoption June 21, will focus on the general fund, Edgar said.
Residents and labor representatives decried proposed budget cuts to the Police and Fire departments.
"You went to the NBA to save the Kings. We're coming to you to save the city," Mary Ann Lujan, president of the Robla Park Community Association, told Mayor Kevin Johnson.
The city can't expect to attract industry and venture capitalists with its high crime, Lujan said.
With the Police, Fire, and Park and Recreation departments representing the bulk of the general fund budget, about 80 police officers stand to lose their jobs under the proposed budget. Gang, narcotics, auto-theft and problem-oriented policing units would be eliminated, and police presence in city schools would be cut by 25 percent.
The police staffing cuts would include 35 positions that are funded by federal grants. The three-year grants stipulate that the city will lose the funding if any officers are laid off.
But city officials said they are seeking a waiver to allow the department to keep the grant funding to retain those 35 positions.
Mark Tyndale, vice president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association, said union members had made significant concessions, stating that some officers had taken cuts of up to 15 percent in compensation.
He urged the council to spare the Police Department from any cuts this year.
In the Fire Department, six rigs would be out of service at any given time on rotating brownouts, up from the current two. The proposal also calls for reducing staffing on two rigs from four firefighters to three.
Jaymes Butler, spokesman for the firefighters union, said the department is applying for a $5.6 million grant to restore two of those rigs.
Of the city's 15 community centers, all but three – South Natomas, Coloma and Pannell – would close. All but three of the city's swimming pools also are targeted for closure, though they would operate through this summer.
Outside City Hall on Tuesday evening, approximately 150 people, many of them members of Stationary Engineers Local 39, representing city utility employees, carried signs and chanted, "Chop at the top."
Representatives complained that management has not borne its share of the cuts.
Edgar said the council will take up the enterprise funds budget in late summer, following utility rate hearings.
WHAT'S NEXT
Hearings focusing on specific aspects of Sacramento's 2011-12 budget will begin next week. The tentative schedule:
• May 12: Summary of reductions, community survey, Parks and Recreation
• May 17, afternoon: Convention, Culture and Leisure; Community Development
• May 17, evening: Police
• May 24, afternoon: Transportation, Utilities, Support, Economic Development, General Services, Charter Offices
• May 24, evening: Fire
• May 31: Library, partner agencies, fees and charges
• June 2: Options
• June 8: Capital Improvement Program
• June 14: Finalize reductions
• June 21: Budget adoption
The $812 million proposed budget includes a $362 million general fund and $450 million in enterprise funds.
But Bill Edgar, interim city manager, said only $222 million of the general fund is discretionary.
Edgar recalled that he prepared his first budget for the city in 1978, following the approval of Proposition 13.
"This budget is four times worse," he said.
This year's budget hearings, leading to budget adoption June 21, will focus on the general fund, Edgar said.
Residents and labor representatives decried proposed budget cuts to the Police and Fire departments.
"You went to the NBA to save the Kings. We're coming to you to save the city," Mary Ann Lujan, president of the Robla Park Community Association, told Mayor Kevin Johnson.
The city can't expect to attract industry and venture capitalists with its high crime, Lujan said.
With the Police, Fire, and Park and Recreation departments representing the bulk of the general fund budget, about 80 police officers stand to lose their jobs under the proposed budget. Gang, narcotics, auto-theft and problem-oriented policing units would be eliminated, and police presence in city schools would be cut by 25 percent.
The police staffing cuts would include 35 positions that are funded by federal grants. The three-year grants stipulate that the city will lose the funding if any officers are laid off.
But city officials said they are seeking a waiver to allow the department to keep the grant funding to retain those 35 positions.
Mark Tyndale, vice president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association, said union members had made significant concessions, stating that some officers had taken cuts of up to 15 percent in compensation.
He urged the council to spare the Police Department from any cuts this year.
In the Fire Department, six rigs would be out of service at any given time on rotating brownouts, up from the current two. The proposal also calls for reducing staffing on two rigs from four firefighters to three.
Jaymes Butler, spokesman for the firefighters union, said the department is applying for a $5.6 million grant to restore two of those rigs.
Of the city's 15 community centers, all but three – South Natomas, Coloma and Pannell – would close. All but three of the city's swimming pools also are targeted for closure, though they would operate through this summer.
Outside City Hall on Tuesday evening, approximately 150 people, many of them members of Stationary Engineers Local 39, representing city utility employees, carried signs and chanted, "Chop at the top."
Representatives complained that management has not borne its share of the cuts.
Edgar said the council will take up the enterprise funds budget in late summer, following utility rate hearings.
WHAT'S NEXT
Hearings focusing on specific aspects of Sacramento's 2011-12 budget will begin next week. The tentative schedule:
• May 12: Summary of reductions, community survey, Parks and Recreation
• May 17, afternoon: Convention, Culture and Leisure; Community Development
• May 17, evening: Police
• May 24, afternoon: Transportation, Utilities, Support, Economic Development, General Services, Charter Offices
• May 24, evening: Fire
• May 31: Library, partner agencies, fees and charges
• June 2: Options
• June 8: Capital Improvement Program
• June 14: Finalize reductions
• June 21: Budget adoption
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