The City Council formally received City Manager Bill Workman’s proposed budget Tuesday night at an emotional public hearing that included pleas from children, tears from adults, and the conspicuous silence of employee unions who are being asked to endure layoffs and pay cuts in order to help balance the city’s $7 million budget deficit.

The city faces what Mayor Mike Gin described as its most difficult dilemma in recent history. With sources of revenue either flat or drastically in decline and the state of California poised to raid city coffers for at least $2 million to meet its own shortfall, Workman has proposed a mix of service reductions, fee increases and job eliminations. He has also asked that employees voluntarily accept an across-the-board 6 percent salary rollback.

“We are in a historical period now that is many ways unprecedented,” Gin said. “…As a local government, we don’t have a credit card and we can’t just print money like the federal government can, so it’s our responsibility to really live within our means.”

Even before the budget process began, the City Council last month agreed to eliminate six positions from the building and planning departments. The proposed budget would further slash the city’s payroll by eliminating 22 positions. Of those, 15 are already vacant and two employees are slated for retirement, meaning five employees would involuntarily lose their jobs.

Councilman Steve Aspel took note of the dark mood that has descended upon City Hall.

“When I got elected the first time, you’d walk through City Hall and everybody would be giving you high fives…Now it’s like Darth Vader – everybody is just looking at you,” Aspel said. “I was elected to fill potholes and trim trees, and now we have people’s lives in the balance.”

“We are asking,” Gin said, “for some very tough things.”

One of the employees slated for layoff stood at the podium and addressed the council. Sharon Wells, an information technology specialist, told the council that she wanted them to “put a name and a face to, actually, the voice of the city…anyone who calls the city, it is my voice that they hear.” Wells said that she is a Redondo resident whose son attends local schools and who had hoped to become a small business owner here.

“I am on the hit list,” she said. “This is it for me.”

City Treasurer Ernie O’Dell defended the senior auditor who is slated for layoff from his department. O’Dell argued that taking away the position – one of only two employees left in a department that a little more than a decade ago had a dozen employees – would not enable him to fulfill his duties as an elected department head. He also argued that the auditor saves the city hundreds of thousands of dollars through his oversight of revenue collection.

“I cannot do my charter duty with only one employee…There is just too much money on the table this employee is responsible for, [work] that nobody else can do,” O’Dell said.

Workman said that many of the senior auditor’s duties were duplicated by other city staff and suggested that O’Dell and his deputy, Frank Rowlen, could take over more responsibilities.

“We’d be looking to existing staff, similar to what are doing in other departments, to focus on core responsibilities and ask that existing employees work at full productivity 40 hours a week,” Workman said.

If the layoff were to occur, O’Dell said he would “have no other alternative but to take other action.” City Attorney Mike Webb said it was within the council’s purview to decide if the treasurer’s office could still meet its charter duties, but he acknowledged that the issue could end up in court.

“The courts generally give deference to city councils on budgetary matters, with one caveat – if you were to take away an elected official’s ability to do his or her duties, the court might step in there,” Webb said.

The only of the five employee unions to address the council was a representative from the Redondo Beach Police Officers Association. RBPD Sgt. Shawn Freeman asked that the council consider looking at other sources of funds rather than further cutting police services, and specifically pointed to three areas – a vehicle replacement fund he said contained $6.2 million in reserves, the city’s self insurance program reserves, and the $1.1 million general fund subsidy given to the city’s landscaping and lighting district.

Freeman noted that the department is already down a half dozen sworn personal from previous staffing levels.
“The Police Department has gone from 105 sworn personnel to currently 99 sworn personnel, almost a 6 percent reduction,” Freeman said, noting that types of police services needed and wanted have increased as staffing has decreased. “The POA asks the council…to consider what is being asked from POA members.”

Workman’s budget does take $1.6 million from the vehicle replacement fund, specifically calling for no vehicle replacements in the Police Department over the next fiscal year. Workman has described his proposals as a “bare bones” budget that prioritizes public safety and public works. The largest service cuts focus on other areas, such as a $433,381 reduction to the public libraries that will result in fewer books and children’s services. Recreation and Community Services is slated for $361,567 in cuts, including the closure of the Franklin Community Center – which would entail the elimination of its community theater program and summer drama camps for youth. The Franklin closure would save the city $254,000 annually.

Several residents spoke at the public hearing in passionate defense of the playhouse, which has become a well-loved local institution under the direction of cultural arts supervisor Pam Ament. The playhouse has even inspired a Facebook group – called Save Redondo Beach Playhouse – that has 254 members. Much of the focus of Tuesday’s discussion was on the summer drama camp.

Diana Sieker, an English teacher at Mira Costa, said that her involvement in the summer camp as a child allowed her to overcome painful shyness. “I was mute,” she said. “I basically did not talk to other kids.” She said the drama camp changed her life and she directly credited what she learned there with allowing her to become a teacher.

“It is safe to say I grew up in summer drama camp,” she said, fighting tears. “I think it is inspiring…that it is not my family that made me come out of my shell. It was my community. It would break my heart if the city I was born and raised in turns its back on something so valuable.”

Steve Williams asked the council to give the playhouse another chance, and to allow the community of people supporting it the opportunity to find their own way to fund it.

“At least give the community the chance to raise that $254,000,” he said. “In my opinion, if the community wants it, we will raise that money.”

He was echoed by a chorus of “three little ones” who joined him at the podium – his daughter and two friends who participate in the drama camp.

“I’d just like to say yes we can raise all the money we need, and if you just give us one shot…we’ll just start a club just to raise the money for it,” said one little girl.

“It’s very important to me,” said the next girl. “I’ve been in plays three years. If it just goes away I don’t have another shot. So please give it!”

“I had a fun time at the play and I don’t want the fun to end,” concluded the last girl to speak.

The council appeared sympathetic to at least finding a way to save the drama camp for another summer, which would cost $25,000. A majority expressed support for the idea, and Gin said he was “heartened” by the show of support for the playhouse. Councilman Bill Brand compared the playhouse favorably to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, which currently operates at a cost of $430,000 annually.

“I would rather keep this open versus the Performing Arts Center, which is nice to have but doesn’t strike me as having this kind of value to the residents of Redondo Beach,” Brand said. “So I would love to find a way to keep this open.”

Brand, who was elected only two months ago, also made one of the bolder suggestions of the discussion – he asked that the city consider consolidating its Fire Department with other beach cities, and perhaps even study contracting fire services to the county. Councilman Pat Aust, the former fire chief, cautioned that such studies are slow and costly.

“They aren’t cheap and they aren’t quick,” Aust said.

Brand stressed that he would prefer the city keep its own Fire Department but he felt it was the city’s responsibility to look into providing public safety at a lower cost. “Other cities have done this, and other cities have saved millions of dollars,” Brand said. “I think it is incumbent upon us to really look at it…I think to continue to punt this is really a disservice to the residents.”

The key cog missing in the discussion was whether the five city employee associations are receptive to what effectively amounts to a 10 percent pay cut for many employees – forgoing a scheduled 4 percent pay increase as well as taking a 6 percent salary rollback. The pay cut represents a $2.1 million savings for the city. Workman said he has alternative recommendations prepared in case the associations do not agree to pay reductions. Since 66 percent of the city’s $73 million general fund is comprised of personnel costs, this would almost certainly mean more layoffs.

“I don’t see we have any choice, if the pay cuts aren’t accepted, but to lay people off,” Brand said.

Gin asked employees to submit any proposals by June 8.

Councilman Steve Diels said he would not support any fee increases – the city hopes to double its parking rates, for example, and through other “revenue enhancements” raise an additional $1.1 million in general fund revenues – unless employees first agree to pay cuts.

“I will not support any more fee increases or any other revenue enhancements unless or until there are concessions from the employees,” Diels said. “And I’m drawing that line tonight.”

The council will continue its budget deliberations on June 16. ER