Oxnard Budget Honored Despite Problems

The city of Oxnard, plagued by financial problems for more than eight months, has received two statewide awards this year for achievements in budgeting standards.

Oxnard was one of four cities with a population of 125,000 or more to receive an award for its 1989-90 operating budget from the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers.

The group also presented Oxnard with an award for its 1988-89 fiscal year financial report.

“I think it’s important to recognize what these awards represent is that the city of Oxnard discloses information regarding actual revenues and expenses so the City Council and public are fully aware of where the money goes,” said Bill Mayer, Oxnard’s budget director. “It sets the basis for decision making.”

The operating budget, which estimates revenues and expenses for the coming year, was judged on the basis of how easy it is for the layman to understand, said Amy Chan, director of finances for the city of Sunnyvale and one of the judges who made the award.

“We were not looking at the financial health of the city as much as the document itself,” Chan said. “We wanted to see if the reader was able to understand what it was telling people.”

The statewide organization is a group of city finance directors.

Of the 43 cities that submitted operating budgets for review, 18 received awards. Oxnard, Pasadena, Santa Ana and Stockton received the award for cities with populations at or above 125,000.

The financial report, which details the actual expenses and revenues determined by an audit at the end of a fiscal year, was judged on the basis of such things as its footnotes and statistical section.

Of 105 cities that applied for the award, 102 received it. It is the first year that Oxnard has been cited for its financial report.

But Oxnard has also become known for its budget problems, having engaged in a series of budget cuts that were in part necessitated by miscalculations in revenues and expenses.

It was disclosed last fall that estimates of revenues for the 1988-89 fiscal year were $2 million too high. At the same time, it was learned that the city had overspent its budget by $850,000.

City leaders subsequently made more than $1 million in reductions, slashing 16 city positions and reducing department budgets. The decreases followed $1.9 million in cutbacks made in June.