Politics & Government
Thumbs Up, Mostly, from Measure Q Committee on Tentative Budget
Council holds budget workshop Tuesday; two public hearings set.
The city’s Measure Q Oversight Committee gave its collective approval — with one component being "wait and see" — after reviewing Concord’s tentative 2011-12 budget, which was presented at a City Council workshop Tuesday night.
City Manager Dan Keen characterized it as a “status quo budget” after two years of instability as the city cut departmental budgets and reduced city staff. The City Council plans to hold two budget public hearings June 14 and June 28.
The November passage of Measure Q, which added a half-cent to the sales tax, has changed the budget picture, Keen said. Measure Q is estimated to bring in $8 million to $10 million a year.
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The chairman of the Measure Q committee, former Mayor Guy Bjerke, and several colleagues attended the council meeting Tuesday.
The committee had deliberated how the tentative budget aligned with three principles of Measure Q and came to the following conclusions, according to Bjerke:
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- Protect core services — The budget meets that test.
- Restoring reserve accounts — The committee believed the city met that test with about $5 million out of $8 million from Measure Q funds in fiscal 2012 slated to go to reserves.
- Reviewing the city’s 10-year budget projection with an eye toward reducing the structural deficit — “It’s too early at this time to pass judgment on that,” said Bjerke. “We don’t know enough about the improving economy and the structural reorganization (of city staff).”
The committee had a consensus that city leaders should “think outside the box” in working to close the structural deficit, set priorities and reorganize city departments, Bjerke said.
It’s a great catchphrase that depends on “further definition of the boxes you’re in,” said Councilman Bill Shinn. “That’s something we all struggle with. As we move forward, perhaps the citizens of Concord will help us define core services.”
Several council members thanked the oversight committee for its thoroughness.
shows expenditures of $172.1 million, up from $168.8 million in the adopted 2010-11 budget, a one-year proposed increase of 1.97 percent It represents a big decrease from the peak budget year of $207.7 million in 2009-10.
The figures summarize operating expenditures for the “total organization.” City officials sometimes express the budget omitting “enterprise funds” — the golf course and the sewer enterprise — that generate fluctuating revenues depending on the number of golfers teeing up and sewer improvement fees and grants.
The enterprise fund shows $20,508,547 in the adopted budget for 2010-11, rising to $20,833,409 in the tentative 2011-12 budget. If you took out your calculator after that sentence, I recommend you take a look at page 34 in the city’s proposed operating budget.