City Council Approves 2011-12 Fiscal Year Budget

City Council on Tuesday OK'd a 2011-12 fiscal year budget.

According to a staff report by city staffer Eva Phelps, the 2011-12 operating budget has $81.9 million in expenditures and $76.2 million in revenue.

Phelps said, however, that officials already have balanced the budget.

Mayor Abram H. Wilson said that he has “one or two concerns about the budget” but that they are mainly “housekeeping issues” that he will address at the City Council’s retreat.

One component of the budget briefly discussed and approved was the adoption of the Health Care Retirement Bridging Plan.

It allows retirees without a spouse to keep their children on their health-care plans until the age of 24 or until the children can no longer be claimed as a dependent on federal tax returns.

Details of the plan were changed slightly during the discussion so a complete description of the plan will be made available as soon as it is finalized.

State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, also stopped by to update San Ramon on state legislative news.

DeSaulnier mostly addressed the state's $25 billion deficit, saying that more significant budget cuts are likely to be made to higher education and K-12 schools.

“We’ve tried to protect K-12 as much as we can, but that’s not always possible.”

He also mentioned the country’s recent requirement that California release about 40,000 inmates over the next three years.

DeSaulnier said that with more than 600,000 prisoners, California has the third-largest prison system in the world behind only China and the nation as a whole.

He said that most of the prisoners likely to be released will be nonviolent offenders and that the state is looking into more residential and treatment options for drug abusers and those convicted of lesser crimes to lower prison population.

Most of the San Ramon City Council members' questions for DeSaulnier focused on the state’s budget crisis and its trickle-down effect on California’s counties and cities.

“Sacramento has forgotten who they work for,” Wilson said. “A lot of us say our major problem is keeping the state from stealing our money – we put money in the front door and you take it out the back door.”

DeSaulnier acknowledged the vast money problems and said that there is “a better way” but that the hard part is not finding a solution to the state’s issues but rather getting everyone involved to agree on a solution and to implement it.

The city's Transportation Planning Division also presented the results of a series of radar speed signs that were installed around San Ramon.

City staffer P.J. Phoot said that 12 signs were installed that measure motorists' speed and display it as they pass.

The signs were put in areas considered high risk for speeding. There has been a decrease in average speed of 6.3 mph in areas in which the signs were placed; in some areas the decrease was 10 miles per hour.

Phoot said there also has been a 5.1 mile per hour decrease in critical speed – or the speed at which 85 percent of drivers travel at or below.

San Ramon police said that speeds were reduced in all 12 locations in which the signs were placed. The city said it has received mostly positive comments from residents and the program will continue.