City asked to involve residents in budget

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Residents would get a larger role in the city’s

budgeting process under a proposal put forward this week by Mayor Tod

Ridgeway at the request of one Newport Beach woman.

During Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, where council members

approved next year’s $153-million budget, Barbara Johnson suggested that

residents should not have to rely on city officials to oversee such

massive spending plans.

At Johnson’s request, Ridgeway directed city staffers to look into the

advantages and disadvantages of forming a budget committee made up of

officials and residents to oversee the process in future years.

“We need to spend a whole year working on this with representatives

from the community and the council working together,” Johnson said

Wednesday. “The budget is something that we, as a community, need to know

about.”

City staffers work on the city budget almost year-round, comparing

expected revenues with expenses before assembling spending requests from

each city department. City Council members review their suggestions in

several study sessions before making a final vote in June.

Though all the meetings are open to the public, Johnson said the

handful of public meetings doesn’t give residents enough time or depth to

fully understand the 100-plus-page proposed budget.

The final touches to this year’s budget included the addition of

$811,157 in “wish list” items, last-minute funding requests by City

Council members and staffers. These items include $93,000 for ficus tree

trimming, $25,000 to replace planters at the Goldenrod Avenue footbridge,

$150,000 for medians in Corona del Mar and $10,000 for the Balboa Island

Museum Historical Society. The decrease in the costs of providing some

city services is expected to cover these additional items.

Dennis Danner pointed out to staff that the operating expenditures of

$110,539,148 are less than last year’s $111,382,904 and that the coming

year’s capital improvements costs of $31,560,283 are lower as well.

“That’s significantly less than last year,” Danner said.

Officials had dubbed this budget as a “status quo” spending plan

because the economic downturn has reduced city revenues, leaving no room

to add new spending priorities. But times haven’t proved so tough as to

require any program cutbacks, either.

The budget does not include about $2.7 million in revenues that would

usually be expected from the state for vehicle license fees. Though Gov.

Gray Davis has said he won’t cut funds to cities in the upcoming state

budget process, Newport Beach officials remain wary that the state

Legislature or even the governor could decide not to send this money to

cities.

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 june.casagrande@latimes.comf7 .

INSIDE

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District approves its budget. See Page

3

For more decisions from Newport Beach’s City Council, see Page 5