Those were the sentiments expressed by Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and City Manager Patrick West during a press conference Tuesday morning at the city’s groundwater treatment plant, where they met with media and city officials to announce the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2016 and during which time Garcia presented his recommendations.
The $2.7-billion budget features a $630,000 surplus, maintains city services, continues to emphasize the public-safety continuum of services and provides investments in parks, beaches, streets and sidewalks, according to Garcia and West.
“I’m pleased to be able to present a balanced budget with a surplus to the city council and to make recommendations that reflect our priorities and values as a city, including support for businesses, public safety and education,” Garcia said. “The city manager, department heads, city council and every staff person in the City should be applauded for prudently managing our funds to turn a projected deficit, when the fiscal year began, into a surplus.”
West said the proposed budget maintains a strong focus on economic development and business attraction, reflects the City’s improved economy and prepares for the future. “This budget funds services in a proportionate manner across a wide range of services and gives top priority to public safety,” the city manager said.
West announced that this budget marks the City’s third year of surpluses.
“This budget reflects the City’s improved and improving economy, and it prepares for the future,” West said. “There’s been a lot of fiscal discipline by the city council in the past year.”
The budget proposes: preservation of services; enhanced focus on critical infrastructure; funding the City’s prior-year commitments; funding the City’s current and future commitments; investments in efficiency improvements; focus on economic development; and innovation and efficiencies.
The General Fund, which is the discretionary portion of the budget, accounts for 15 percent, or $412 million, of the proposed budget, but it provides many of the resources for critical city services, including police patrol and investigations, fire responses, parks, streets and library services. The General Fund primarily relies on general tax revenue, which has increased more than previously forecasted, leading to the surplus, according to city officials. Among the largest revenue sources are property tax, sales and use tax, property tax in lieu of vehicle license fees and utility users tax.
The preservation of services includes dedicating 69 percent of the General Fund to public safety, which breaks down into 48 percent for police, 18 percent for fire and 3 percent for disaster preparedness. Other portions of the General Fund include: 9 percent for public works; 8 percent for the Department of Parks, Recreation & Marine; 5 percent for elected and appointed officials; 3 percent for library services; and 6 percent for “other,” according to a City booklet entitled “Fiscal Year 2016 Proposed Budget for Community Review.”
[aesop_image imgwidth=”350px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/LB-budget-for-FP.jpg” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”Long Beach City Manager Patrick West discusses components of the proposed city budget during a press conference at the groundwater treatment plant at 2950 Redondo Ave. Tuesday morning.” captionposition=”right”] West explained that there will be a continued focus on critical infrastructure, including dedicating nearly $10 million to local streets and sidewalks. That allotment breaks down into: $4.9 million for the residential streets program; $3 million for the sidewalk program; $950,000 for local streets/ sidewalk repair (nonrecurring); and $1 million for sidewalk study and plans (non-recurring). He also said $11.4 million will be dedicated to a major/secondary streets program and there will be continued investments on parks and recreation improvements, transportation enhancements and public facilities.
The city manager also explained that the proposed budget focuses on prior, current and future commitments that include: expanding homeless services, including outreach, collection and storage of homeless residents’ belongings; support for homeless-related initiatives; an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) coordinator to facilitate ADA projects and prevent/respond to ADA-related complaints; support for stormwater permit regulations/memorandum of understanding participation; and 5 percent of non-recurring revenue to cover unfunded liabilities. The investment in efficiency improvements include a reduction in street sweeping time periods. It would be the first rerouting in over 30 years, and city officials expect the massive change to improve quality of life in parking-impacted areas throughout the city. Other efficiency improvements include: a major project to reduce paper documents; a citywide conversion of street lights to LED lighting, leveraging rebates and zero-interest loans; and conversion to drought-tolerant landscaping
in medians.
The focus on economic development would entail a workforce-development bureau placed under the Economic & Property Development Department, the Bloomberg Innovation Grant i-Team to stimulate growth and jobs, and a continuation of strategic marketing of RDA Successor Agency properties to meet neighborhood goals and help ensure the reduction of sales-tax leakage.
Addressing exactly how that money is spent, the community-review booklet includes an image of a dollar bill broken down into nine sections. For every General Fund dollar spent: 49.5 cents go to paying salaries; 16.9 cents are spent on “other employee costs” ; 12.9 cents are attributed to pensions; 9.6 cents go toward equipment and maintenance costs; 5.6 cents are for contracts and services; 2 cents are spent on utilities; 1.8 cents are set aside for materials and supplies; 1.5 cents are for “other costs and transfers” ; and 0.1 cent covers debt service.
In discussing the budget proposal, Mayor Garcia emphasized a theme of “livability.” His recommendations include:
• support for $2.2 million in one-time funds for preventing and responding to violent crimes
• support for $150,000 in one-time funding for community engagement strategies, deescalation techniques and other training for police
• $100,000 for crime-analysis support • $186,000 for the Be S.A.F.E youth program
• support for $200,000 for a small-business incentive program
• support for implementation of the Open Counter software to improve efficiency in business permitting and licensing
• $50,000 toward creation of an Innovation Hub downtown
• creation of an early-childhood education coordinator position
• a pilot program to open three libraries on Sundays
• support for $950,000 to reroute street sweeping to improve parking
• support for $150,000 in one-time funds for the Long Beach Museum of Art
• $50,000 in matching funds for the Arts Council of Long Beach
Despite a significant drop in the price of oil, which provides substantial revenues to Long Beach, the City has maintained its balanced budget and funded previous and future commitments this year, due to fiscal discipline and the aggressive pursuit of grants and other monies from the State and Federal governments, according to city officials.
“It’s a budget that we should all be very proud of and certainly one that we have been working on as a team for many months,” Garcia said. “The budget was not created in a staff vacuum— it really is a product of lots of input, of community dialogue that we’ve heard throughout the year on a variety of issues, discussions at the city council, and, of course, initiatives that I have laid out in this last year as mayor.”
The city council will begin the process of reviewing the budget at its next meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 4. The Budget Oversight Committee will also meet in August to review the budget and provide recommendations to the full city council.
For more information about the budget, including the Budget Challenge for residents, the community budget booklet, the Mayor’s budget recommendations and details about budget hearings and workshops during which residents can provide input, visit longbeach.gov .
