By Clarence Cromwell
The town scratched together enough money to limit library cuts to a total of half a day and give a one-year reprieve to KCAT in the final budget adopted June 17. But the final budget cut one ranger position.
The proposed budget called for closing the library on Fridays, in addition to Thursday afternoons. But the town found enough money to restore Thursday-afternoon service, in addition to some other services.
Despite heavy lobbying by the ranger's supporters, the Town Council decided to let Dave Grey go at that meeting, to help balance the $13.7 million budget.
Mayor Randy Attaway changed his mind and agreed to the cut after Councilmember Patrick O'Laughlin argued forcefully for cutting the rangers.
Tough fiscal times forced the council to cut at least $288,000 from the budget to pay for road repairs delayed more than six years. The council wanted to raise $800,000 a year with a five-year utility-users' tax, but voters rejected it at the polls March 26.
Numerous residents, including former Trails and Bikeways Committee chairwoman Carol Ann Weber, asked the council to cut somewhere other than the ranger program. Approximately an equal number asked that two police department positions not be deleted from the budget. The Police Department cuts will be to unfilled positions, a $76,200 detective position and a $40,000 records clerk, meaning no layoffs for police department employees.
But Weber's group also presented the town with a 500-signature petition, asking the council not to cut any ranger jobs.
Weber started the petition drive and rallied dozens of speakers to the meeting. She said she had asked every person who addressed the council on behalf of the rangers to attend the meeting.
Weber said she had considered a November run for the Town Council before the budget session. But now she's going to drop the plan and devote her time to restoring the ranger program, she said. After councilmembers voted, Weber said she might try to take the town to court to restore Gray's job.
Councilmembers Joanne Benjamin and Steve Blanton suggested paying for both town rangers with cuts to other programs. "As much as I value what KCAT does," Blanton said. "relative to the two, I value what the rangers do more."
But two councilmembers refused to cut further into other departments to provide the $55,000 for Gray's salary.
O'Laughlin moved to cut one ranger but allowed room for the job to be restored in future budget years. Councilmember Linda Lubeck seconded the motion. That left Attaway with the final say.
Attaway at first leaned toward preserving the ranger's job, saying he'd only support O'Laughlin's motion if no money could be found to restore rangers.
O'Laughlin responded: "We're elected to make these hard decisions and we ought to make it."
That was enough to change the mayor's position.
"He's right," Attaway said the next day. "We were elected to make difficult decisions and the electorate would expect us to do so."
Attaway said the decision was one of the hardest he's had to make as a councilmember.
The motion to accept the budget passed unanimously, but Benjamin and Blanton emphasized their distaste with cutting Gray's job.
Weber accused the council of ignoring what residents want in cutting the rangers.
"There are alternatives, but they don't want to listen tonight," Weber said. "They're too focused on doing their own thing."
Attaway defended the council.
"You don't like to vote against a popular program," Attaway said, "but you know, you've got to do what's right. I think that's a special group going to one segment of the budget. Had we turned to another segment of the budget, we'd have had another group opposing that."
A clearly disappointed Gray walked out of the meeting after the vote. "Ten years of hard work is lost," he said outside the building.
Town Manager David Knapp, who wrote the ranger cut into the budget, said that the town has cut back so far in recent years that layoffs were inevitable.
The town has cut only positions that were unoccupied in the past, but Knapp said that is no longer possible.
"You can't let attrition dictate the shape of your organization," Knapp explained. He added that it's likely the town's other ranger will go on the chopping block next year.
Although the ranger job will be cut, the town will pay for a handful of programs that Knapp originally proposed cutting. Councilmembers asked him to come up with money for the programs at the May 29 budget hearing. Knapp explained to the council at last week's meeting that he drummed up about $53,660, enough to save those programs.
Instead of eliminating the local cable channel, KCAT, the town will supply it $31,500, only half of the station's annual budget. Keeping the library open on Thursdays will cost $12,500. Councilmembers agreed that they will have to close the library on Fridays, but they wanted to restore Thursday hours from a half day to a full day. The remainder of the funding will go to the Human Services Grants program.
The money is supplied by the $21,100 the town expects to collect in new service charges and fees, $25,990 in cuts to the equipment replacement fund and $6,570 remaining in the general fund from the current budget year.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, June 26, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved