City proposes deep cuts

CITY HALL — Residents were relatively silent at Tuesday evening’s budget hearing despite citywide spending cuts as high as 7.5% that could significantly affect Glendale’s municipal workforce.

In addition to a long-standing citywide hiring freeze, officials are proposing to eliminate 23 vacant positions, rearrange funding sources and restructure service programs in order to bridge a projected $9.7-million budget gap for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Despite the dire financial constraints, only two people spoke up at the hearing — community activist Nancy Kent, who asked for a minor concession for nonprofit events at the Central Library, and frequent City Hall critic Mike Mohill, who again railed against city salaries.

Still, speakers have shown up at the numerous afternoon study sessions at City Hall in recent weeks, City Manager Jim Starbird said.

A final public hearing on the proposed $164.82-million general-fund budget is scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting, a week before the July 1 deadline.

Councilman Dave Weaver interpreted the lack of public input as a nod of approval to the proposed cuts.

“Only two of 207,000 people came down to speak,” he said. “That tells me that 99% of people realize what we’re going through and have accepted it.”

The proposed budget includes the elimination of numerous vacant positions across city departments, wage concessions, a suspension of general-fund transfers to the capital improvement fund, and a shift in the Park Ranger program, among other cuts. The council must still iron out the final details, including a planned 5% cut to the Police Department, which will be addressed at a final budget study session Tuesday morning.

Throughout the budget process, city officials and council members have acknowledged that public services will be affected by the cuts, but have worked to find areas that have the “least detrimental” effects.

City officials have also repeatedly emphasized that the budget should be viewed as a moving document that can be adjusted as the city awaits moves from the state as it battles its own $24-billion shortfall.

“Our city budget — particularly our general fund and capital improvement budgets — is a work in progress, even after July 1. I think you’re going to have to put your approval on a budget that is a plan, and just a plan,” Starbird told the council earlier in the day. Councilwoman Laura Friedman suggested that concerned residents urge their elected state officials to stop raiding local coffers to support the balancing act in Sacramento.

The city may lose valuable gas tax revenue, which funds street improvement projects, as well as about $3.5 million in Glendale Redevelopment Agency funds. In addition, the state could borrow up to $4 million from the city under Proposition 1A.

“This is going to be a year of continued focus on the budget,” Starbird said. “It will probably be the most important, and most frustrating, thing we will work on.”