By Sarah Lombardo
Saratoga City Council members rolled up their sleeves and got serious with the budget at the fourth town hall budget meeting. The result was a number of suggestions from the council, ranging from cutting expense accounts by 20 percent and making a 15 percent cut across the board to phasing out the Recreation Department, and a request to staff to put it all together. According to Mayor Gillian Moran, none of the suggestions at last week's meeting was definitely to be used in the trimming of the budget, but instead all were meant to further the discussion.
In the end, the council did direct city staff to prepare a draft budget using some of the suggestions for 1997-98 that will reflect the total revenue shortfall owing to the defeat of the utility users tax--all $1.4 million of it. The new budget will be presented to the council at a town hall budget meeting next month.
Although the entire $1 million in tax funds will not be lost in fiscal year 1997-98, the first without the tax, council members said they wanted to prepare for the worst-case scenario and create a balanced budget without any of the funds.
"I think maybe we should bite the bullet now," said Mayor Gillian Moran.
Council members went through a list of city functions and programs and deemed them essential or not, making suggestions about where to trim those services that were essential but maybe a little costly. Public safety, environmental services, public works, debt services, general government, intergovernmental and capital projects were all functions council members said were necessary; community services and community support were deemed nonessential.
Several residents tried to argue with the council's determination of community support and services as nonessential, but councilman Paul Jacobs defended the move, reminding residents that the determination did not necessarily mean such services would be scrapped.
"Just because we say something isn't essential doesn't mean it has to go away completely," he said. Jacobs said even some "essential" services would be subject to reduction.
Council members suggested that, in the category of community services, the Recreation Department try to cut its staff by 20 percent and find a way to become more cost-effective. One resident suggested raising fees to help offset the department's indirect costs. Jacobs said he'd like to see the department look into the possibility of privatizing some of its programs.
Other council suggestions for reducing the city's expenses included getting rid of the school resource officers, reducing the level of upkeep on city streets and medians and consolidating as many city services as possible. Councilman Jim Shaw even said he'd be willing to take a 20 percent cut in his monthly expense account of $250. All council members receive $250 for expenses, but Saratoga is the only city in Santa Clara County that does not pay a salary to council members.
But suggestions didn't come only from the council members. A representative from the Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council said the seniors would be willing to give up their city grant of almost $19,000 in the upcoming fiscal year to help the city with its budget, but asked that the SASCC not be cut out the following year.
In addition, a representative of the Hakone Gardens Foundation told the council the foundation was working on a plan to take over more of the monetary responsibility for the garden, but stressed that the foundation still needed some support from the city.
One suggestion from the public that the council did not seem open to was to bring back the 3.5 percent utility users tax, defeated in November by 77 votes, or introduce another.
"If the tax failed by so few votes, doesn't that show that the majority of people do want to pay it?" said one resident.
Jacobs said he didn't agree, saying that the defeat of the tax told him that voters wanted the city to scale down.
"[The tax] failed, so that's that," Jacobs said. "They expect us to meet the fiscal reality."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, February 26, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.