By Gus Herrera
On Monday, June 27, the Pasadena City Council unanimously adopted city staff’s recommended FY2017 budget of $835.9 million.
Discussions regarding the city’s budget have been ongoing since May 9, when the first of five special joint meetings between the city council and the finance committee took place. During each of these meetings, the operating budgets for city departments and the city’s affiliated agencies were discussed. Any questions proposed by council members were responded to by staff at the subsequent gatherings.
Originally, council’s meeting for June 27 had been cancelled, as budget discussions were (rather optimistically) predicted to be completed before then. But when it became apparent during last week’s meeting (June 20) that more deliberation was necessary, the meeting was back on. As a result of these circumstances, Council Member Steve Madison was absent from the night’s events, due to a previously scheduled commitment. Council member Tyron Hampton was also absent, although he did join the meeting via teleconference, until his phone reportedly ran out of battery.
The city’s budget accounts for the following three entities: the operating budget, with which the city funds its many departments and their respective employees; the capital improvement program (CIP), which aims to address the city’s infrastructure; and the city’s operating companies (i.e. the Rose Bowl Operating Company, the Pasadena Center Operating Company, and the Pasadena Community Access Corporation).
According to city staff’s report, the operating budget adopted consists of the following appropriations: $237.8 million to the city’s General Fund and $476.4 million to “All Other Funds” – totaling $714.2 million.
$64.6 million will be appropriated to the CIP and $57.1 million towards the city’s three operating companies.
Staff’s report estimates the city’s expected revenue for FY2017 to be $868.6 million: $237.8 million from the general fund, $503.1 million from “All Other Funds,” $64.6 million from the CIP, and $63.1 million from the operating companies.
According to these aforementioned figures and the words of Interim City Manager Steve Mermell, this year’s budget is “essentially a balanced budget … a largely status quo budget, with modest increases here and there.”
Although FY2017 seems, at this point, to be a moment of temporary fiscal balance for Pasadena, Mermell was quick to remind everyone in the council chambers that starting FY2018, the city “will be spending more than it is bringing in.”
Thus a major theme of this year’s budget was to “adopt a financial plan that maintains sufficient reserves to address downturns in the economy,” according to Mermell’s presentation. On that note, council approved Item 3 on the night’s agenda, which added $2.5 million to the General Fund’s emergency reserve, bringing the total reserves to $33.4 million.
Some of these additions Mermell mentioned included four amendments, recently added to the budget that was originally proposed on May 9.
The first amendment was the addition of $50,000 towards the General Fund for a community-based organization to carry out community outreach, with respects to the city’s new minimum wage ordinance.
The second was the addition of $95,000 from the Cultural Trust Fund for the city’s Rotating Art project, which was originally launched in 2011 to create vibrant outdoor art galleries throughout the city. Currently there are 11 of these sites and the money approved will fund the next phase of theongoing project. For more information on the Rotating Art Project, click here.
Third was the creation of a full-time equivalent (FTE) position, via the combination of two existing partial FTEs to handle senior programming at Villa Parke. By combining two partial FTEs into a FTE, no additional funds will be required for this new position.
The fourth amendment, the addition of 10 unfunded police officer FTEs to the police department, drew the most attention, both from council members and citizens alike. The budget approved provides for 239 FTE sworn officers, but according to Tornek, “due to turnover, attrition, and injury” the police department has not been “at the full complement of officers for a long time.” Police Chief Phillip Sanchez added that, as of now, there are 19 officers on the force eligible for retirement. Thus, in order to ensure the city’s is always as close as possible to the goal of 239 officers, the 10 unfunded positions were approved as a precautionary measure.
For more details, click here.
