Finally, A Budget Framework...

OVERPAID PLANNING COMMISSIONERS PROVE MY POINT
Before I forget.... the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, at their meeting Monday night, exceeded my expectations - kinda. As I earlier predicted, their one-item meeting was going to be a quickie - I speculated that it would be finished in a half-hour. Well, I was wrong, but not by much. The meeting began promptly at 6 p.m. and concluded at 6:27, so the boys did themselves proud. And, since they will only be meeting once a month through November, that means the good taxpayers of Costa Mesa paid them what amounted to more than $800.00 per hour for all their "hard work" on Monday. Don't you feel good about that?

*****

FULL STUDY SESSION AGENDA
Today was a busy one for our City Council. As mentioned yesterday, they had a full agenda, with a Study Session packed with interesting items - including Wendy Leece's proposal to sanctify the City Council chambers with a plaque carrying the motto, "In God We Trust". Since the session was not televised live I have no idea how that played with the remainder of the council members.

PAINFUL REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY REALITY
Then they adjourned to the council chambers for a meeting of the Redevelopment Agency - the council in a different dress. That was a quickie, during which they made decisions protecting the city in the event the state successfully snatches redevelopment dollars from us.

MUSICAL CHAIRS
Then the lights were dimmed and the council played musical chairs and swapped name tags and re-convened as the city council to consider one item - the proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the Costa Mesa Firefighters and the city.

FIREFIGHTERS OFFERED MORE THAN WAS ASKED...
To summarize, the questionable areas that existed a week ago have been hashed out by the negotiators on both sides and an acceptable proposal was presented for the council to consider. Presentations by senior city staff with, added input by the leaders of the firefighters association, made clear that this was an acceptable proposal. In fact, the firefighters actually presented more savings than the city originally requested.

STUBBORN OR STUPID?
It was very frustrating, but not unexpected, that Mayor Mansoor just couldn't grasp the numbers no matter how many times it was explained to him. Of course, this is who he is - a man with very limited intellectual resources being asked to comprehend what began as some complicated issues. In the end, though, I think it was just stubbornness on his part. Led by the solid discussions by Katrina Foley, Wendy Leece and Gary Monahan, the proposal as presented was passed on a 3-2 vote, with Mansoor and Bever voting No.

BEVER'S CONTRIBUTION? ONE WORD...
It was interesting to note that, despite all his bluster on the Daily Pilot blog over the past few days, Bever said only one audible word all night. That was when he said "second" to Mansoor's substitute motion to delay voting on this issue until the next council meeting on the 18th. That motion failed. Bever offered not a single word - not even any of his occasional grunts - during the discussion. He asked no questions, posed no alternatives - it was as though he was asleep. In fact, he may have been for all we could tell. One might have thought someone had cut out his tongue, for goodness sake.

THE BERRYS BLUSTER
Maybe Bever felt the tag-team of his neighbors, Mike and Judi Berry, said enough so he didn't have to. Believe me, I thought they said more than enough, but at least Judi didn't whine about cutting the Mutt Mittens from the budget this time around. And who knows what Mike said?! Sometimes it seems as though even he doesn't know what he's saying.

PETTINESS ON DISPLAY
When the final vote was taken Mansoor, clearly peeved, abruptly said, "That's it. We're adjourned."

NOW LET'S MOVE FORWARD
This budget process has been taxing for all concerned. City Manager Allan Roeder, Steve Mandoki, Marc Puckett, Bobby Young and the rest of the senior staff did a masterful job of presenting the council with workable solutions. Some of those are still dependent on a certain level of sales and property tax dollars. However, with the passage of the issue tonight, they now have a skeleton on which to begin adding muscle and bone. So now the city staff can move forward unless other curves are thrown our way. They can begin to plan for the potential early retirements they anticipate this fall and they can begin to manage the 104 unpaid furlough hours each employee - except the firefighters - will be expected to take between now and the end of August next year.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FOR A JOB WELL-DONE
Congratulations to all involved for a job well-done. To the employees of our city, thank you all for understanding the extent of the problem and for your dedication in working together with the senior staff to resolve the problems. The firefighters, in particular, are to be commended for presenting a workable solution with some very sticky service issues that had to be addressed.

MANSOOR AND BEVER UNWORTHY OF OFFICE
I cannot close this post without observing, one more time, just how ineffective Mansoor and Bever have been in this process. It seems as though everything is black or white to them. Their inability to grasp - either through stubbornness or denseness, or both - the intricacies of this process demonstrates just what happens when the electorate is wooed by a one-note samba during a campaign. Mansoor and Bever used the fear of your dark-skinned neighbors to win their seats, which concealed the fact that neither man has the grey matter necessary to do their jobs. That is certainly something to keep in mind in the future as one or both may seek another elected office.

Budget and Buffa - Some Weekend Reading

BUDGET PERUSING?
Well, neighbors, I know you're all busy with that copy of the budget you downloaded and are using that fine-toothed comb to cull through every single line item to find more "fat" to cut. Yeah, right!

TAKING A LITTLE BREAK
Myself, I'm taking a little break from all that tedious number stuff - I trust the Finance staff to do their jobs with the numbers and the remainder of the city management team to do what they've been doing for many months - using all their skills to approach this budget year conservatively, always looking for ways to save.


WILL THE COUNCIL DO IT'S HOMEWORK?
Next Tuesday we'll find out if our city council has done their part and spent time on the budget document. Or, as has many times been the case, have they decided to take the easy, lazy way out and simply instruct the staff to take out their cleavers and make across the board chops in the headcount. I know from personal experience over many years wrestling with budgets that it can be an exhausting experience. I'm sure some on the council dais will have a lot of difficulty with this process, especially this year, because they're working with such intellectual limitations.

RECREATIONAL READING FOR YOU
So, to get you through the weekend, I have a couple little items for you to read.

FIRST, A LITTLE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The first is an entry I wrote on this blog, in it's earlier iteration, just about this time of the year three years ago. Click HERE and you'll be taken to an archived blog page. Scroll down to the second entry dated June 21, 2006 and titled "Budgets and Boneheads". This will give you a little historical (hysterical?) perspective on this process from the recent past.

SECOND, A BUFFA BUFFET
Second, click HERE and you'll be taken to a very nice biographical profile of his ex-ness himself, former Costa Mesa Mayor and current Orange County Transportation Authority Chairman, Peter Buffa. Debbie Sklar at PublicCEO.com has, once again, provided a very nice profile of a Costa Mesa mover and shaker. You may recall her recent profile of City Manager Allan Roeder which I linked for you HERE.

HIS SUNDAY LEVITY DOESN'T TELL THE STORY
This profile of Buffa gives you real insight to his skills and experience. If your only reference for him is his weekly Sunday morning column in the Daily Pilot, then you would have no idea the depth and breadth of his experience in Orange County politics. Even though I occasionally disagree with him on some issues - the ill-conceived and now defunct CenterLine Light Rail boondoggle, for example - I admire and respect Peter's ability and his foresight. I think you'll really enjoy this profile.

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND - GO LAKERS!
That's it for now, folks. I'll be away from my computer for the weekend, so any comments will probably just sit in the hopper, waiting for me to retrieve and approve them for publication later. In the words of Peter Buffa, I gotta go.

No "TOT" Increase - Elections Cloud Judgment

GUTLESS "RECEIVE AND FILE"
Tuesday night the Costa Mesa City Council voted unanimously to simply "receive and file" Linda Dixon's request and accompanying staff report requesting that an increase in the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) be placed on the November ballot. That means no further action will be taken on this subject this time around - again. That motion was made by Allan Mansoor and seconded by Eric Bever.

BYRON NAILS IT - AGAIN
Byron de Arakal, in his column today on this subject, really nailed it. You can read it HERE.


BRIEF RE-HASH
I won't go into the details of this issue - I covered it in my previous entry and many people chose to provide their comments on it - except to observe that the staff presentation was a shorthand version of the discussion held at the Study Session last week. I doubt that audience members not previously privy to the details of this subject would have understood what this was all about from tonight's presentation.

THE MAJORITY IGNORES THE PROFESSIONALS - AGAIN
Once again, the majority on the City Council have chosen to ignore the wise counsel of their senior city staff, including City Manager Allan Roeder and Finance Director Marc Puckett, on an issue that will have a long-term impact on the future of our city. Roeder and Puckett and their staffs have, for decades, effectively played a shell game with the city's finances, using the Fund Balance from the previous year's budget to balance the new one. Don't get me wrong - that's not a criticism, it's a statement of admiration. It's hard for me to imagine a municipal budget being more effectively managed.

DECLINING REVENUES REQUIRE ACTION
However, with the decline in sales tax revenue and the uncertainty of the property tax revenue stream because of the current worsening loan crisis, it is clear from all indicators that those two segments of our municipal revenue stream will fall well short of their budgeted levels. The two segments combined make up 70% of our municipal revenue stream.

TOT INCREASE WOULD HAVE EASED THE IMPACT
The proposal by Dixon, which was heartily supported by Roeder and his staff, to place before the voters a modest increase in the TOT in November would have - if approved - dovetailed nicely in the spring with the anticipated decline in revenues. The TOT is a tax felt only by visitors to our city and ours is currently the lowest in the county.

POLITICS FIRST
When it was clear that the Bever-led majority was not about to approve placing a TOT increase on the ballot, nor were they interested in tinkering with the business license fees, Katrina Foley and Dixon voted with the majority to blow off this plan. It is an election year, after all... I find it very curious that the city council had such low regard for the opinions of the voters that they wouldn't trust them to make a wise decision on this tax increase in November, so they just refused to place the question before them.

CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST IN THE SPRING
Next spring, as the city begins preparing it's next budget, the chickens will come home to roost. It will be very interesting to see what kind of a waltz our elected leaders do to shrug off the responsibility for the difficult financial times ahead. I'll remind you of their vote tonight when the time is appropriate. As Allan Roeder reminded the council tonight, when revenues fail to materialize it won't be a matter of simply tightening the municipal belt - that's the way he and the staff run our city in the normal course of doing business. No, it will mean deciding which services and improvements will not get done. When unfilled potholes begin occurring on your street, remember this vote.

2008-2009 Budget Workshop

BUDGET? WHAT'S THAT?
Just about a year ago I wrote a little entry talking about the 2007-2008 Costa Mesa budget. At the time it seemed as though no one in our city cared a whit about how much money was going to be spent on their behalf. Nor, it appeared, did they care about the way it was spent. Very few people showed up at the community budget workshop. "Very few" means 3 people!

ANOTHER BUDGET? (YAWN)
Well, here we are, another year, another budget workshop and (yawn) no one cares! Thursday, June 12th, I attended the most recent iteration of the budget workshop conducted by City Manager Allan Roeder, Finance Director Marc Puckett and his strong right arm, Bobby Young. As in years past, it was sparsely attended.

MARKETING DOUBLES ATTENDANCE!
Because of a strong marketing effort on my part (he says, tongue firmly implanted in his cheek) there were twice as many residents in attendance this year. Your friendly correspondent and long time resident and council-watcher Beth Refakes were there for the duration. Park and Recreation Commissioner and former council candidate Terry Shaw, busy guy that he is, arrived a little late and left a little early. Eastside residents Jeff Harlen and Jim Fitzpatrick, both of whom are recently-energized activists, attended, but had family commitments that forced them to depart early. That was it! In a city of over 110,000 souls, five of us cared enough about how our tax dollars are being spent to attend all or part of this excellent workshop.

DOES ANYONE CARE?
To be entirely fair, a couple dozen residents attended the City Council Study Session on the 10th, during which the presentation was made to the council. Some asked questions and made suggestions. So, in actuality, fewer than 30 people cared enough about the budget to attend either meeting. What does that tell us?

WE'RE IN GOOD HANDS
Well, I think it tells us that most of the populace feel they are in good hands when it comes to money management in our city. Others might say that most people just don't give a rat's patoot... I prefer the former. Having watched Roeder and Puckett in action for several years, I have a great deal of confidence in their ability to analyze the needs of the city and create solid financial plans to accomplish them. This year's budget is no exception.

SOME NUMBERS TO CONSIDER
Here are a few numbers for your consideration: This year the city plans to spent almost $145,000.000 on your behalf, up from around $131,000,000 the previous year - an increase of 10.57%. 80% of our revenue is derived from Sales and Property taxes - Sales Tax=43.67% and Property Tax=27.61%. The remainder comes from a variety of much smaller sources, the largest of which is the Transient Occupancy (Bed) Tax, at 5.34%.

MORE NUMBERS
48.27% of the Operating Budget will be spent on Salaries, 13.31% on Retirement benefits and 5.20% on Debt Service. According to a dandy little chart in the Budget at a Glance booklet available to all residents, for the fiscal year 08-09 the Median Residential Property Value in Costa Mesa is $600,000. Property Tax paid on that amount is $6000. Of that amount, $900 is distributed to the city. Of that $900, $504 (56%) goes to Police and Fire services.

NO NEW STAFF
The largest hunk of money typically spent in our municipal budget goes for the people employed by the city in terms of salaries and benefits. During the presentation City Manager Allan Roeder stated emphatically that he advised his management team that no additional staff will be authorized during the new fiscal year.

NOT FOLLOWING VALLEJO
On the subject of Police and Fire services, most of us know that the City of Vallejo in the Bay Area recently filed for bankruptcy, in great part because they were spending more than 80% of their total budget for Police and Fire salaries and benefits. Costa Mesa's budget shows slightly over 50% for the same line items.

LOTS OF BUILDING AND ROADS
Expenditures for the Capital Budget is up 41.35% this year. The city plans to spend more than $10,000,000 on road and infrastructure improvements during this budget year. That's a lot of pot hole repairs, street re-paving, bike paths and turn lanes to be installed.

SPENDING MORE THAN WE TAKE IN!
This year the city plans to spend slightly more than $10,000,000 more than they will take in from all revenue sources. "What?!", you say. "How can they spend more than they will take in? What kind of fiscal management is that?" Glad you asked. The short answer is that it's outstanding fiscal management. The even shorter answer is two words - Fund Balance. Remember that $131,000,000 they budgeted last year? Well, they don't just prepare a budget, then start writing checks until the money runs out. The city staff keeps their finger on the financial pulse of our city throughout the year. They spend the money when it's needed and don't when it's not. Fund Balance is what's left over from the budgeted number that has not been spent. This money has been taken out of the 07-08 pocket and placed in the 08-09 pocket to balance this year's budget. Slick, huh?

EMERGENCY RESERVE
Oh, yes. In case you're wondering, the Emergency Reserve is around $14,125,000, just about the same as last year.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
"OK, Pot Stirrer, you've got my attention", you say. "How can I find out more?" Glad you asked - again. The city has prepared budget documents for every level of interest, beginning with the aforementioned Budget at a Glance pamphlet. Between that and the full-blown budget document there are two others - the Budget Study Session workbook and the Proposed Operating and Capital Improvement Budget Summaries - which will provide more information than most of us will ever need. Copies can be obtained from the Finance Department.

ONLINE INFORMATION AVAILABLE
Additionally, the budget is available online for download - don't try it without a high speed internet connection - it's a couple hundred pages of pdf file! If you want to see some of the Powerpoint and Video segments you can go to the city website - there's a link on the right of this page - and follow the links to Costa Mesa TV, then to the Archived Videos. There, via streaming video - also requiring high speed internet - you can view the June 10th Study Session, which includes the entire dog and pony show presented to the City Council.

BUDGET TO BE ADOPTED NEXT WEEK
Tuesday, June 17th, the City Council will consider and adopt the final 2008-2009 budget. That session starts at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. You can view the proceedings live on CMTV, Channel 24 and also on live steaming video on your computer. The meeting will be replayed during the week at various times.

PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE
So, neighbors, once again the city staff, led by Allan Roeder, has managed to keep us out of financial quicksand through diligent attention to the management of this city and the preparation of a sound budget. There is a display case in the Finance Department lobby full of awards bestowed on The City for the preparation of budgets in previous years. Thanks to all of them for continuing excellence in the performance of their duties for our city.