Goleta Officials Project New Budget Will Break Even - Noozhawk.com

Noozhawk.com - Goleta Officials Project New Budget Will Break Even

Daily Sound - Goleta projects a $1.1 million deficit

Daily Sound - Goleta projects a $1.1 million deficit

BlogaBarbara: The Back Story on Onnen's Absence

To truly understand my approach to Eric Onnen's absence from the last Goleta City Council meeting, one has to review what happened the week before when a vote for employee raises for City of Goleta workers took council to the midnight hour. While watching the meeting, it was clear that Onnen was keeping the meeting going unnecessarily with questions that did not pertain to government but were more suited to his extensive experience in the private sector. He brought up bonuses, for instance, which can't be given to public employees as it would be a gift of public funds. The meeting, it seemed, continued because he did not do his homework.

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BlogaBarbara: Absent Eric? Goleta Budget Vote Too Important to Miss...

BlogaBarbara

For a rookie councilmember, that's a really tough vote to miss -- especially when there is apparently a movement started to recall the last election.

Goleta Approves First Two-Year Budget

SB Independent
By Martha Sadler
June 26, 2007

Girsh Park founder Pat O'Malley was moved to tears, and found himself unable to finish his emotional "thank you" to the Goleta City Council and city staff, as they formally adopted the first two-year budget in the city's history on 6/25. Besides doubling its contribution to $100,000 annually, the city gave Girsh Park its own specific line item in the budget, rather than lumping it in with the larger recreation budget.

The council also approved $150,000 for a fish passage on San Jose Creek, to be added after modifications are made to prevent flooding in downtown Goleta. The city's relatively modest budget allocated expected revenues of about $30 million over the next two years, including $16 million in sales, property, and hotel bed taxes that must flow to the County of Santa Barbara as per the revenue neutrality agreement; a contract Goleta signed as a condition of its incorporation, promising that its becoming a city would not hurt the county's coffers.

Department heads also presented the council with projects they are working on for the near future. These ranged from a new park in Old Town, and a new city website, to the development of 600 residential units and 400 hotel rooms. The budget also includes cost of living increases of three percent annually for city employees, but no increase in retirement benefits. It identifies $8,000 as an unreserved fund balance for the coming fiscal year, which staff characterized as "a small cushion" and which city councilmembers worried was too small. In approving the budget, councilmember Roger Aceves challenged staff to increases revenues, suggesting business licenses as a potential source, and also recommending that staff examine strategies used by other cities. Aceves also challenged the business community to help fund city sports, arts, and music programs.

Goleta OKs More Than $30M in Spending Over Two Years

Santa Barbara Newsroom
By Tom Schultz
June 26, 2007

The Goleta City Council on Monday approved more than $30 million in spending over the next two fiscal years — finalizing balanced budgets focused on growing the young municipality amid concerns about possible future deficits.

In a 4-0 vote, the council approved $15.42 million in expenditures in fiscal year 2007-08 starting next month, and another $15.74 mllion in spending in 2008-09. Revenues would outpace disbursements by just $10,000 in the first year and $16,000 during the next.

In a separate 4-0 vote, the council approved Redevelopment Agency budgets focused on cleaning up blight across Old Town that provide nearly $11 million in spending in 2007-08 and more than $3.8 million in spending in 2008-09.

"There's a lot going on here and we're very excited as we tackle the next two years," City Manager Dan Singer told councl members. He said it would make sense for the city to formally review its botttom line with the council in six months.

Councilman Roger Aceves challenged City Hall staff to keep looking for cost savings as well as new revenue streams. If city projections hold true, Goleta will be nearly $900,000 in the red by July 2010 and more than $1.2 million in the red by July 2012.

Councilman Eric Onnen, who last week sugggested the city hold the line on staff raises to create more of a financial cushion while the city is still in the black, was reportedly at home ill and did not vote.

Monday's evening session to adopt the budget followed a series of workshops that began in late May. The hearing moved quickly compared to a meeting a week earlier, when the council remained at City Hall to nearly midnight debating cost-saving strategies.

Key issues in recent weeks included: Should the Goleta forgo pay raises for City Hall staff members, for example, or perhaps promise less help by way of funding grants to outside organizations? Should the city make reigning in ongoing costs a priority, or perhaps cut one-time expenditures?

Onnen last week said he was obligated to speak out in favor of restraining ongoing costs such as salary increases.

"We've got a zero-sum budget," he said a week ago. "And we're not going to save resources to prepare for that? I think it's imprudent. . . If I was staff, I would build in some rate increases into my budget proposal as well.

"But we have flat revenues," he said. "I'm not suggesting there be no cost of living increases over the next two-year period. I'm saying we don't commit to that in this (budget). If we say we are going to wait and see, then that's what their expectation will be. We can't change it after we give it to them. That's the point."

Other council members defended the raises. The budget approved Monday retains 3 percent cost of living adjustments in each of the next two years at a cost of more than $200,000. It also keeps money flowing to outside organizations, including $200,000 over two years to Girsh Park and $40,000 over the same time period to the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce.

"The idea of not giving staff what I think of as their just reward is unconscionable, placed in the context of some of the other spending in this budget," Councilwoman Jonny Wallis said last week. "If we don't pay our staff well, we're not going to make progress as a city."

Goleta, a city of 30,000 residents, incorporated in 2002.

While overall city revenues will barely outpace spending in the next two business cycles, according to projections, City Manager Dan Singer has expressed confidence that projections gauging how much tax and fee money will hit the coffers are solid.

This comes as several council members push for new negotiations over a contract that sends half of Goleta's tax revenue to Santa Barbara County, under terms of a deal the two governments worked out upon Goleta's successful 2002 incorporation. Councilmen Onnen, Aceves and Michael Bennett promised to renegotiate the agreement to make it more favorable to the city during last fall's bruising council election campaign.

As it stands today, Goleta's new budget would provide for a variety of programs and services.

The largest expense — nearly 40 percent of all spending — would go to public safety. The city would pay the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department more than $11 million over the next two business cycles to patrol neighborhoods.

Planning, another key function in Goleta, would account for about 13 percent of costs.

On Monday, officials took an opportunity to highlight some of the programs the new budgets will pay for.

"The numbers don't mean that much to the people watching at home, but the activities we'll be accomplishing . . . should be of interest," Mayor Jean Blois said.

Among those actiivities, the city plans to expand programing on its government access TV channel 19, redesign its Web site, further promote carpooling among its employees, continue helping to spruce up Old Town homes and businesses, add a community resource deputy to its police force, create a geographic information system for property owners, finish its first general plan, build new trails at Ellwood Mesa, open new parks, repair the Goleta library and expand street sweeping.

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Amid Concerns, Goleta Budget on the Table Tonight

Santa Barbara Newsroom
By Tom Schultz
June 25, 2007

Balanced city budgets for each of the next two fiscal years are on the table in Goleta, but officials have expressed discomfort with razor thin margins that leave little wiggle room for increased spending.

The City Council today will consider final approval of $15.42 million in expenditures in fiscal year 2007-08 and another $15.74 mllion in spending in 2008-09. Revenues would outpace disbursements by just $10,000 in the first year and $16,000 during the next.

Riled by the lack of a substantive financial cushion, council members head into tonight's meeting at City Hall on the heels of disagreement over how or whether the city might create more flexibility around its bottom line.

Last week, the debate boiled down to questions of philosophy and tack: Should the Goleta forgo pay raises for City Hall staff members, for example, or perhaps promise less help by way of funding grants to outside organizations? Should the city make reigning in ongoing costs a priority, or perhaps cut one-time expenditures?

While the city is solvent for now, it faces deficits around the end of this decade if projections hold true, Councilman Eric Onnen noted.

"We've got a zero-sum budget," Onnen said recently. "And we're not going to save resources to prepare for that? I think it's imprudent.

"When your budget gets tight, you reduce your spending. Not after you run out of money, but before," Onnen said.

Onnen backed what he acknowledged was a difficult position for a new council member — reconsidering cost of living adjustments for the City Hall staff. Other council members balked at the suggestion, and wondered whether the $203,000 in savings resulting from such a strategy would be worth it.

As it stands, the budget to be considered today retains a 3 percent cost of living adjustment for staff in each of the next two fiscal years. And the council will consider altering city retirement benefits expenditures sometime this fall.

"If I was staff, I would build in some rate increass into my budget proposal as well," Onnen said. "But we have flat revenues... I'm not suggesting there be no cost of living increases over the next two-year period. I'm saying we don't commit to that in this (budget). If we say we are going to wait and see, then that's what their expectation will be. We can't change it after we give it to them. That's the point."

Other council members appeared flabbergasted.

"I totally disagree with you on employee compensation," Councilman Roger Aceves told Onnen during a recent budget workshop, noting the city is poised to grant $200,000 to Girsh Park in the next two years and, among other donations, $40,000 to the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce. "What you are asking staff to do is basically work two years without a pay raise. That's totally inappropriate."

Without the raises, Aceves said, "We're going to have a retention issue. We're better than that."

Councilwoman Jonny Wallis was equally protective of the raises. "The idea of not giving staff what I think of as their just reward is unconscionable placed in the context of some of the other spending in this budget. If we don't pay our staff well, we're not going to make progress as a city. We're going to see attrition, which is costly. It is incredibly costly when a staff member walks away from the city. We're not going to be able to recruit in a competitive sense."

Today will be the fourth time the council takes up the budget, following recent hearings on May 21, June 4 and June 18. In addition to its primary budget, the council today considers a separate Redevelopment Agency budget focused on cleaning up blight across Old Town that would provide nearly $11 million in spending in 2007-08 and more than $3.8 million in spending in 2008-09.

While overall city revenues would barely outpace spending in the next two business cycles, City Manager Dan Singer expressed confidence that projections gauging how much tax and fee money will hit the coffers are solid.

"We feel very comfortable and confident in the revenue numbers," Singer said. Last week, he promised the council he an analysts would keep looking for additional ways to cut costs or otherwise improve the city's financial comfort level.

This comes as several council members push for new negotiations over a contract that sends half Goleta's tax revenue to Santa Barbara County, under terms of a deal the two governments worked out upon Goleta's successful 2002 incorporation. Councilmen Onnen, Aceves and Michael Bennett promised to renegotiate the agreement to make it more favorable to the city during last fall's bruising council election campaign.

As it stands today, Goleta's new budget would provide for a variety of programs and services.

The largest expense — nearly 40 percent of all spending — would go to public safety. The city would pay the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department more than $11 million over the next two business cycles to patrol neighborhoods.

Planning, another key function in Goleta, would account for about 13 percent of costs.

Donate to the Santa Barbara Newsroom to help cover operating expenses and help make ends meet.

S.B. County puts most unbudgeted requests on hold

Santa Maria Times: After debating among themselves whether or not Santa Barbara County's financial future is bleak, county supervisors listened Monday to departments ask for more funding than proposed in a 2007-08 budget -- pleas that ranged from hiring extra sheriff's deputies to providing a social worker for inmates needing treatment programs after jail.

Housing slump may dampen budget outlook

Lompoc Record: Three days of hearings on Santa Barbara County's proposed $800-million budget for 2007-08 begin Monday, with the financial picture strong for the coming year but shakier in the future, as a slumping housing market and construction slowdown affect property-tax revenues.

...

The two-inch thick, 413-page document has a wealth of financial and demographic information, about not only county government but the entire Santa Barbara County region. It is available for viewing or copying online at www.countyofsb.org/cao/budgetresearch/budget0708.asp.

Goleta Faces Tricky Budget Balancing Act

Santa Barbara Newsroom
By Tom Schultz
May 29, 2007

Looking ahead to the next two financial cycles, Goleta officials face a raft of potentially tricky decisions as they work to keep the city's operating budgets in the black.

Tax income and other revenues would exceed City Hall expenditures in fiscal year 2007-08, according to preliminary projections, but would fall short of covering costs in 2008-09.

Goleta has maintained a balanced budget since its 2002 incorporation, and council members during a recent workshop did not appear ready to let that record of success slip away in the coming weeks, as they work to finalize spending plans for the next two fiscal years before June 30.

Councilwoman Jonny Wallis said she was particularly concerned about "a dramatic increase" in expenditures over those posted during the current fiscal year, particularly in light of a small 1 percent city revenue increase projected for 2007-08 and similarly modest 1.2 percent revenue increase expected in 2008-09.

For example, "We are showing in our services and supplies budget by department and program a more than 37 percent increase" in spending, Wallis noted.

Among its looming expenses, the city in 2008-09 anticipates a $165,000 bump in cost of living adjustments to wages over current levels, a one-time $200,000 bill for the creation of zoning codes and a nearly $334,000 increase in law enforcement costs over current levels.

"Deficits are not acceptable," Councilman Eric Onnen said, suggesting the city should carefully shape its expectations. "We have to look at all those areas where we have opportunities to adjust our expenditures."

"We are going to have a very skinny budget in the best of circumstances, and we could go negative very quickly," he said.

BY THE NUMBERS

Goleta would take in $15.41 million and spend $15.3 million in 2007-08. The following 12-month cycle, the city would collect $15.6 million and spend $15.72 million. Goleta currently operates on a more than $14.3 million spending plan, with about $14.7 million in revenues.

For the first time, Goleta is planning two years into the future — a change that brings more work but allows the city more flexibility in timing the start or completion of projects. The shift also enables City Hall to more easily carry money over from one year to the next, City Manager Dan Singer said.

"There are organizations that say they have a two year budget and every year they adopt a two year budget, which really just makes the second year a projection," Singer said, adding Goleta instead would fully appropriate money over a 24-month period, while at the same time allowing for adjustments down the line. "It will require our department managers and our staff to be more careful and diligent in spending money, so that not too much of it is spent up front."

Complicating the task of planning for the next two fiscal years are requests across the next two fiscal years that currently remain unfunded in the preliminary budget. Among these are $128,000 for a community resources deputy for law enforcement, $111,000 for a new motorcycle officer, $100,000 for recreational services, $20,000 for a festival in Old Town and $9,000 to record and broadcast Design Review Board meetings on television.

In addition, outside organizations including Girsh Park, the Goleta Valley Historical Society, Goleta Valley Beautiful, the American Red Cross, the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce and other groups seek a combined $470,000 in grants for various projects over the next two fiscal years.

"Some of these unfunded items we would highly recommend funding, but then it's a matter of, "Where do you get the money to do it?" Singer said.

PLAYING IT SAFE

Goleta's largest expense is its more than $5 million annual contract for law enforcement services with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department. Negotiations are underway to frame that contract for the next five years, and the public will have its first chance to comment on the draft document Monday.

Money for the unfunded community resources deputy, who would work with residents to tackle community problems, could come from a donation from Camino Real Marketplace. The shopping center has proposed giving the city space for a Sheriff's Department operations base plus $100,000 in each of the next five years to help with the cost of law enforcement.

While Singer said the center would benefit from added visibility of law enforcement there and shortened response times to the property in the event of an emergency, Councilwoman Jonny Wallis said she was concerned about the perception that the marketplace was reducing its private security force and in essence buying the use of public law enforcement.

Mr. Singer said that was not the case. "The personnel there and the $100,000 is not meant to require the Sheriff's Department to do foot patrol, or patrol the Camino Real Marketplace."

Sheriff's Lt. Chris Pappas, Goleta police chief, compared the proposed base to the Sheriff's Department headquarters, stating that the area around it does not receive special attention.

As the budget talks unfold, watch for newly-elected Councilmen Onnen, Michael Bennett and Roger Aceves to increasingly criticize a deal that they say unfairly sucks money away from the city.

All three promised during last year's bruising council election campaign to renegotiate the terms of a revenue-sharing agreement in which Goleta sends half its sales, property and other tax income to Santa Barbara County. The new councilmen say the contribution, negotiated with the county shortly before the city formed, is far too steep.

Bennett and Onnen said recently that the city should note the situation prominently in its budgets.

"It would be very helpful so that everyone understands the impact, number one, of the county doing what they are doing to us," Bennett said.

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