City sets its eye on budget

CITY HALL — The City Council on Tuesday will begin deliberating ways to plug a $7-million budget gap by July 1 as departments present reduction strategies during six budget study sessions planned throughout the next two weeks.

The City Council is charged with analyzing the appropriateness of each of the city’s 16 departments’ budget proposals and the effect of the anticipated 5% to 7.5% reductions on city services. City officials vow to avoid layoffs, but predict that the preliminary budget, to be completed by June 1, will be “painful.”

“We’re entering an era of cuts,” Mayor Frank Quintero said. “I think we’ll have a few more years.”

Already, firefighters have agreed to shave $1.2 million from their pockets by forgoing this year’s scheduled salary increase. City officials will also be negotiating with the Management Assn., the Glendale City Employees Assn. and the Police Assn. in hope of getting similar payoffs, Finance Director Bob Elliot said.

“We’re looking for that same type of strategy with the other bargaining groups,” he said.

Declining revenues and a bleak national economic outlook have made balancing the budget particularly daunting this year. Fresh off last year’s budget deficit, city officials have implemented several money-saving strategies, including eliminating 66 vacant positions, reducing take-home vehicles by 28%, and freezing hires.

“Our first priority is to determine how we can restructure ourself [as a city] to reshape the delivery of our services to basically maintain the service level,” Assistant City Manager Bob McFall said. “There’s no one strategy that we’re deploying to manage the project shortfall.”

The core part of each department’s presentation, which will run from 30 minutes to an hour, will center on a discussion about internal processes and projects in addition to forward-looking strategies and budget proposals.

The mayor, who will be entering his ninth budget season on the council, said it’s imperative to remain open-minded throughout the sessions.

“I always do the same thing,” Quintero said. “I listen to all the presentations and take notes, so that the whole picture comes together. And then you can make your final decision.”