City Council Slated to Adopt Annual Budget

The proposed Fiscal Year 2010-11 Operating and Capital Budget, which has a 6 percent decline in expenditures from the current fiscal year, will go before San Ramon City Council for approval Tuesday night.

If adopted, the budget resolution would give the city authority to spend $85.6 million on all activities between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011—a $5.1 million drop in expenditures from the 2009-10 fiscal year budget, according to the city's Administrative Services Director Greg Rogers.

The proposed budget "provides funding for core services in a period of time where available revenues are being negatively impacted by a recessionary economy," the staff report states.

The general fund—which is supported by tax dollars and pays for parks and community programs, street maintenance and police services outside of Dougherty Valley—is $37.6 million, down $200,000 from the current fiscal year.

Shortfalls are owed to declines in sales, property and hotel taxes and development impact fees, Rogers said.

"There have been a couple of things bringing revenues down so expenditures are also coming down," he said. "The amount of money available has declined so we've had to do certain things to try to offset that."

This translates to cuts in city services and staff.

While core services like the police force will not suffer losses in the coming fiscal year, some marginal recreation programs will be eliminated and modifications will be made to landscaping and street maintenance, Rogers said.

"We're trying to save money and make the budget work with the least impact to the public as possible," he said.

Furthermore, the proposed budget would eliminate funding for an additional four frozen vacant positions, bringing the total frozen positions to 32, or 12 percent. The hiring freeze instituted in 2008 would continue and personnel would face a salary freeze.

In order to maintain core services, the budget proposes that the city utilize $2.9 million of the General Fund operational reserves to cover the steep decline in revenues. Due to slower-than-planned growth in Dougherty Valley service district revenues, $2 million of reserves set aside in the Dougherty Valley fund will be allocated to the general fund.

"Revenues have fallen so we're making up with the rainy day funds which are reserves that we accumulated for periods when the economy is down," Rogers said.

He added that the city is in "a pretty good reserve position right now," with $34 million. However, cuts were necessary to limit the use of reserves.

"We're tightening up because we don't know how long this downturn is going to last and we want to make sure the reserves last until things pick up again," Rogers said.

The proposed budget also calls for continued economic development efforts to attract and retain retail businesses, and would establish the state-required appropriation limit and authorize carryover of unspent 2009-10 fiscal year capital improvement appropriations to the coming fiscal year.

A paper copy of the proposed budget, roughly 175 pages in length, is available for viewing at city hall. An electronic version of the final budget will be uploaded onto the city's Web site a few weeks after approval.

The budget developing process began in December 2009 when staff developed guidelines and a calendar with the objective of delivering an on-time budget proposal to the City Council this May.

During the first budget study session on April 2, staff presented a preliminary draft of the budget. Council members requested few changes unlike years with a healthy economy, when they have asked for more programs such as summer concerts, according to Rogers.

"It's a lean budget and not many people want to add things right now," he said.

The draft budget was converted to a preliminary budget that will be reviewed in a City Council study session at 3:30 p.m. today, open to the public. Staff will make final adjustments based on recommendations.

The budget must receive a majority vote to pass tomorrow night. If it is not approved, Council members have two more opportunities during the June City Council meetings before the budget takes effect at the beginning of the 2010-11 fiscal year on July 1.

Failure to adopt a budget by then would make an emergency resolution necessary to spend money but that is rarely the case in San Ramon because Council members typically have sufficient time to review the documents, Rogers said.

"A strategy was laid out in April so there usually are not major changes at this point, but that is at their discretion," he said.