Southwest Chula Vista Civic Association
(A
BRIGHTER FUTURE THROUGH COMMUNITY ACTION)
PO Box 6064,
Chula Vista, CA 91909, (619) 425-5771
This
month’s meeting will be held on Monday June27 at 6:15 PM at the
South Library on Orange and Fourth in room B which you can enter from the 4th
Ave. parking lot.
Come
participate in what will be in the 2050 plan for SANDAG. Everything requested
by anyone in Chula Vista is now in the rough draft, including a light rail line
from Palomar trolley station along Palomar to Third. Then along Third all the
way along 15 to northern San Deigo. Please come and make your opinions known.
SANDAG will provide
refreshments and be taking official comments. See plan at http://www.sandag.org/index.asp?projectid=349&fuseaction=projects.detail
What
happened this month?
1. Yard
Sale June 4 and 5. Thank-you. We made $530 which will help pay for these
newsletters, required reporting to state and federal government and printing of
fliers and information handouts.
2. The
Council approved parts of the budget for 2011-2012.
3.A weekly
farmer’s market at Swiss Park at the end of Main St. from 3-7 on Mondays began.
4. There
was another meeting about Medical Marijuana Dispensaries where Council Persons
decided to recommend to the council a strict ordinance that will allow
deliveries, but restrict to very few if any true non-profits.
5. The
Southwest working Group met on June 15 to discuss the zoning of the area between
Frontage Industrial, Palomar and Anita-Palomar Gateway.
6. Monday
June 20 the SUHSD Board will meet at Southwest High School Gym at 6PM.
7. An
exhibit of Historic Chula Vista Photos
opened at the heritage Museum on Third and Park Ave.
What will
happen?
The
Council will adopt a budget by the June 21 at 6pm with more cuts in services
due to declining revenues.
SOUTHWEST CHULA VISTA CIVIC
ASSOCIATION
General Meeting of May 23,
2011
South Branch Library 4th
& Orange
Call
to order at 6:00 with total attendees: 32
Linda
Brown gave a fantastic presentation about the history of her
neighborhood-Woodlawn Park. Many in attendance added their own stories and we
heard part of Don Alexander’s story. To be continued on July 25.
Everything You Wanted to Know About Chula Vista's
Budget, But Were Afraid to Ask, courtesy of Councilwoman Pat Aguilar
Chula Vista's City Charter requires that the City Manager submit a budget
to the Council for consideration in June of each year for the subsequent
fiscal year. The Council is required to adopt a budget by June 30.
The budget is the city's plan for how we intend to spend the money
we expect to come in over the year. Adoption of a budget may be the
single most important thing the Council does each year.
The proposed budget for the city of Chula Vista for the fiscal year
July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012 was presented to the City Council at our
meeting on June 7, 2011. At that meeting the Council approved some
parts of the budget submitted by the city manager, but put off taking
final action on most of the budget until the meeting of June 21, 2011.
The final budget discussion and action will take place on that date
at 6 p.m. time
certain, in the City Council chambers. If you wish to read the
proposed budget, you can download it from the city's website. The
specific website address is: http://www.chulavistaca.gov Click on the
"Featured Focus: FY 2011-12" link in the middle of the page.
If do not care to read the entire document, you can take your
chances on my summary, below.
Where Does the City's Money Come From, and Where
Does It Go?
For the FY 2011-12, the City Manager
expects we will take in a total of $262 million. The largest
sources of this anticipated revenue are property taxes ($39 million);
sewer fees ($33 million); sales taxes ($26 million); motor vehicle license
fees ($17 million); and Open Space District assessments ($12 million).
For the FY 2011-12, the city manager
is recommending we spend $283 million. The largest categories of
recommended expenditures are for police ($42 million); sewer maintenance
($33 million); public works ($23
million); fire/emergency medical
services ($22 million); interest expense, public liabilities and debt
service ($12 million).
The Finance Director has explained
that even though this looks like an unbalanced budget because it has us
spending $21 million more than we expect to take in, it actually is
balanced. This is because we have
been cutting back since January 1 of
this year, because we knew we were going to have a shortfall in FY
2011-12. So although it appears we are spending more than we expect
to take in between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012, in fact we are not
because: (a) we put aside $2.6 million in savings called a
"Contingency Reserve" between January and June of 2011; (b)
significant cuts in staff have been made, especially in the Public Works,
Library and Recreation Depts.[1]; (c) we accrued substantial savings as a result of new agreements
with city labor unions.[2]
So Many Funds
We
always hear about the city's General Fund, but there are actually lots of
various funds for different purposes.[3] The budget document divides the
proposed 2011-12 budget into nine categories, shown below
with
proposed expenditures and revenues for each during FY 2011-12:
Expenditures; Revenues
Fund (in $ millions)
General
Fund 124; 124; Capital Project Funds 11; 7
Sewer
Fund & Sewer Development Impact Fee Fund
33; 33;
Redevelopment
Agency & Housing Authority Funds 22; 18;
Development Services Fund 6; 6;
Transit Fund 6; 6; Fleet Fund
4; 4;
Debt Service Fund 20; 14;
Other
Funds [4] 48; 43
Total
All Funds
283; 262
Total General Fund, 124
million
The two largest categories of proposed expenditures are for
personnel services and "supplies and services"[6] (p. 38).
About 77% of the General Fund operating budget ($96 million) is
proposed to be used for personnel (salaries and benefits). The number of
full-time employees has decreased from 5.6 per thousand residents in
2006-07 to 3.8 full-time employees per thousand residents in 2011-12 (p.
42). Ten percent ($13 million) of the General Fund expenditures is
proposed to be used for supplies and services.
Debt
So how much debt are we in? Almost $300 million. The single
largest component of this debt by far (almost $140 million) is something
called Certificates of Participation. This is debt incurred to
finance construction of the police station and improvements to the City
Hall complex at Fourth Avenue and F Street. In FY 2011-12 the City
Manager estimates "servicing" our debt will cost the General
Fund approximately $6 million, which represents about 5% of the
General Fund operating budget (considered by the city's Finance Department to
be an average debt burden for a local government).
Reserves
My Mom always told me it's important to set aside money for a
"rainy day". City Council policy adopted in 2000 requires
maintaining a reserve balance in the General Fund of at least 8%. In
fact, the General Fund balance (or reserve) is anticipated to be about
$10 million, or about 8% of the General Fund, by June 30, 2012. But
not all funds are required to have reserves, or even be balanced. The
Redevelopment Agency Fund, for example, is projected to be in debt to the
tune of $21 million by 6/30/12. The Sewer Fund is wealthy by comparison.
The City Manager projects that the Sewer Fund will actually have $68
million in reserves by 6/30/12. This is 200% of this
fund's projected 2011-12 operating cost! The Sewer Fund and the
Transit Fund are projected to enhance their reserve levels in the coming
year, while the Redevelopment Agency, Other Funds, and Capital Projects,
Debt Service and Fleet Management Funds are all anticipated to have
reduced reserves compared to last year.
Beyond FY 2011-12
The city budget reflects fiscal policies put in place by the City Council
in 2000. One of these policies is: "Recurring revenues
will fund recurring expenditures. One-time revenues will be used
for capital, reserve augmentation, or other non-recurring expenditures"
(p.264). This policy was violated in FY 2010-11, when the operating
budget was balanced through $9.6 million in one-time revenues (p.35).
This one-time revenue infusion is not available for the 2011-12
budget. As indicated above, the city's Finance Department did excellent
planning, and the proposed 2011-12 operating budget has been balanced by
reducing staffing levels, reformation of the city's employee
bargaining agreements, and use of $2.6 million in an "Economic Contingency Reserve."
But the Economic Contingency Reserve is another one-time infusion of
revenues that won't be available in future years. So what will the
future look like?
At the April 14, 2011 budget workshop, the City Manager produced
a "Preliminary 5-Year Financial Forecast". This forecast
indicates we can expect ongoing deficits in future years: $.8
million in FY 2012-13; $2.2 million in FY 2013-14; $1.6 million in FY 2014-15;
and $1.1 million in FY 2015-16. So what is referred to as the "structural
imbalance" in Chula Vista's operating budget remains, albeit at a
lower level than the last couple of years. Our challenge is to
figure out how to correct that on-going structural imbalance and abide by
the fiscal policy quoted in the
paragraph above.