City holds first of three community budget workshops

Posted: 1:50 pm, May 13, 2016 by Reporter Jackie Iddings

Budget includes forecasts through fiscal year 2020-2021 and a recessionary scenario

-The City of Paso Robles held the first of three community budget workshops on Thursday night during a special meeting of the Paso Robles City Council. Key initiatives for the budget were presented by City Manager Tom Frutchey and a budget overview was presented by Director of Administrative Services Jim Throop. The community turnout was small but active. Community members had the opportunity to comment before and after the presentations. Community comments and questions were answered by members of the council, Frutchey, Throop and other city staff who also attended the workshop. The city budget includes a five year forecast with proposed budgets for fiscal years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 and forecasts through FY 2020-2021. Two budgets with forecasts have been developed: a continuation budget and a recessionary scenario.

General fund revenue comes primarily from taxes but is also from licenses, permits and fees, charges for current services, and other sources such as grants. The city also maintains an enterprise fund that is funded by fees from those who use those specific services, such as water, solid waste and the airport.

General fund revenues come from taxes, licenses and permits, and other sources.

Frutchey said that the community needs and wishes in a number of areas “over and above current programs” were taken in to consideration for the proposed budgets. Those community concerns include road maintenance, housing, jobs, youth programs, public safety, community connectedness and providing city services as cost effectively as possible. These needs were organized into key initiatives:

Maintaining assets: Accelerating roads maintenance projects, HVAC and lighting systems, street trees and sidewalks, Sherwood Park restrooms, and rehabilitation at Centennial Park and Barney Schwartz Park.
Help and support youth: Renovations and enhancements to Larry Moore Park, a children’s librarian and an increase to the library book budget.
Additional key initiatives for Public safety, housing, jobs and economic development, refreshing downtown and citizen engagement.

The expenditures for these initiatives would come from the general fund and are detailed in the workshop packet.

General fund expenditures by type.

Speaking to the 56-percent budget expenditure for personnel services, Fruchtey said that Paso Robles has a lower personnel budget than similar sized cities, many averaging 70-80 percent of their budgets for employee compensation. The most recent employee compensation data that is available from the California State Controller’s Office (SCO) are for 2014. A budget handout at Thursday night’s meeting included comparison of police officer salaries between Paso Robles and nine surrounding cities for 2015. The average police officer salary among the 10 cities in the comparison is $77,824. The lowest salary is $59,126 for King City. The highest is $98,540 for San Luis Obispo. The average salary for a Paso Robles police officer is $78,780. Frutchey also pointed out that even though 236 city staffing positions are authorized by the budget, only 171 of those are filled and ratio is 5.86 full time employees per every 1,000 residents. This ratio is the third lowest in San Luis Obispo County. The highest is Pismo Beach with 12.45 city staff per 1,000 residents. The lowest is Atascadero with 3.98 employees per 1,000 residents.

The next two public hearings on the budget are scheduled for June 7 and June 21, 6:30 p.m. at the Library/City Hall conference facility located at 1000 Spring Street. The public is encouraged to download and review the workshop material, to continue providing input to the budget and to attend the next two meetings. Assistant City Manager Meg Williamson said sending comments and questions by email to the city council or the city manager’s office is encouraged and telephone calls are also welcome. The workshop packet, which includes the overview, forecasts, key initiatives and budget details is available from the city’s web site.