City Council approves new budget, fees

Alicia Robinson

The beginnings of a community center in Newport Coast, the completion

of the Mariner’s branch library and a riding arena in Santa Ana

Heights are where Newport Beach residents will see the city’s budget

for the next year.

Where they’ll feel it, albeit in a minor way, is in their wallets.

The City Council on Tuesday approved a budget for the 2005-06 fiscal

year, which begins Friday, and it included some prominent capital

projects.

To pay for maintenance and to prevent future deficits in city

water and sewer funds, the council agreed to the first water- and

sewer-fee increases in nine years.

Next year’s spending includes nearly $150.8 million, an increase

of less than 2% compared with this year. Capital improvements will

cost $36.1 million, significantly less than the $65.5 million the

city spent on such projects in 2004-05.

July 26, the council will hold a public hearing and a second

reading on the water- and sewer-rate hike. If it’s approved,

residents will pay between $1 and $10 more in water meter fees each

month, and they’ll be charged about $1 more per month in sewer

connection fees. The fees for the amount of water used also will go

up slightly.

The city has been able to hold rates down for the last nine years,

but increases in water costs the city pays, water and sewer system

improvements and the funding of a reserve will put the city in the

red without the rate increases.

A last-minute checklist of items council members and city

departments wanted to add, at a cost of more than $7 million, also

got the council’s stamp of approval.

The list included $75,000 for a fundraising drive to build

athletic facilities at Costa Mesa’s two high schools; $250,000 for a

horse arena for Santa Ana Heights equestrians; and $60,000 for a

public dock in the Rhine Channel -- but the dock is contingent on a

state grant.

Those additions won’t bust the budget because city officials

reserve a certain amount of money for such extras, said Dick Kurth,

the city’s deputy director of administrative services.

“What we’re telling the council is the checklist items that have

been identified -- up to the 11th hour -- are within the amount of

money we had set aside to cover this,” Kurth said.

While the budget was unanimously approved without much quibbling,

one item in the checklist got extra scrutiny. Councilman Steve

Rosansky questioned spending $225,000 to relocate ball fields to

allow more parking at the planned community center in Newport Coast.

The $7-million center was to be paid for by money from an

annexation agreement with the Irvine Ranch Water District. The city

and the Newport Coast Advisory Committee, representing residents,

clashed over whether to put parking spots on a space that was planned

for a future library.

Rosansky said the council had never voted on the latest plan,

which includes moving some existing ball fields in favor of parking,

and he worried about the expenditure setting a precedent.

“I just want everybody to understand that we now are paying more

than $7 million,” he said.