Monrovia Council Adopts Austere Budget Cutting Employees, Programs
By Monrovia Weekly
Published: Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Monrovia’s City Council has adopted a balanced but austere two-year budget that cuts employees and trims programs in the face of continued revenue losses due to the national economic downturn.
The Council, in a unanimous vote Tuesday, June 16, closed a potential $2.6 million gap in the budget caused primarily by decreasing sales tax revenues.
As many as 22 current City jobs are being eliminated, including a round of layoffs this month that cut four positions on top of the 10 spots that were either eliminated or not filled during the past two years. In addition, 12 current employees are taking an early-retirement buyout between now and October. Their positions will not be filled. Other cuts will come through attrition, and some currently open spots will not be filled.
The City is still negotiating with employee associations, seeking changes in labor contracts that will provide additional savings and complete the budget balancing. The negotiations center on eliminating merit raises and performance bonuses for at least the next year to ward off further personnel cuts.
The new fiscal plans take effect July 1. Negotiations with employee groups are expected to be completed before that date.
Mayor Mary Ann Lutz said that, “We’ve had to make some very hard choices, but the result is that Monrovia remains strong, it’s finances are secure and we can continue to move forward. These are difficult times, but with careful management, we’ll weather them just fine.”
She said that, “The budget has been balanced through personnel cuts and cost savings, the freezing maintenance and operations budgets at previous years’ levels, the deferring of capital expenses wherever possible, and few if any new programs.:
The new budget, which covers fiscal years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, calls for expenditures of about $60 million each year, about half of that involving the General Fund, which is financed through sales taxes, property taxes and charges for services.
Cutting back on personnel, explained City Manager Scott Ochoa, will mean some decline in City services – a longer turnaround time on engineering plan checks and longer periods between trimming of parkway trees, for instance.
Other anticipated consequences of the cutbacks include a scaling back of community events such as the Fourth of July fireworks show, which has been cancelled this year; a cutback in the number of summer concerts; elimination of the Food, Wine and Jazz Festival; the Canyon Park Haunted Hike and the Halloween Home Decorating Contest.
Passport services in the City Clerk’s Office will be affected, as will the turnaround time on public records requests. The Fire Department’s Community Emergency Response Team will be limited to just two classes. The Library will reduce Children’s Story Times to just one per age group.
City Departments are also being reorganized in the face of personnel and funding cuts:
(1) Public Works is consolidating its Operations Division into Infrastructure Maintenance and Engineering Divisions.
(2)Community Services has consolidated mid-management positions in its Recreation and Library Divisions.
(3)Community Development will be using consultants and contractors to make up for the loss of personnel.
(4)The Administration Department is downsizing Records Management.
Although there are some new programs and initiatives called for in the budget, few of the dollars to pay for those will come from the City’s General Fund. Nearly all of those new projects will be funded by grant monies and other restricted dollars already set aside and allocated.
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