Josh Dulaney, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/13/2010 05:11:34 PM PST
FONTANA – Officials tasked with grim budget decisions said Wednesday the $8.2 million deficit the city faces for fiscal 2010-11 could lead to layoffs and undoubtedly will result in painful cuts to services and community programs.
“Obviously, every department is going to have to take cuts,” Councilwoman Janice Rutherford said.
Both a $3 million structural deficit and a roughly $2.6 million contractual employee cost adjustment is choking a budget already suffering from revenue shortfalls.
The city’s labor groups are meeting this week with City Manager Ken Hunt to discuss the cost adjustments.
“They are asking us to forego our (3 percent) cost of living raise in July,” said Police Detective Shawn Hare, head of the the 156-member Police Officers Association.
Hare said he asked Hunt if the move would save positions in the Police Department.
“He wouldn’t come out and say,” Hare said. “It’s hard because they don’t have any hard and fast (budget numbers).”
The association plans to vote on the issue next week.
Unlike last year’s budget that saw development services absorb most of the city’s 12 layoffs because of the construction slowdown, layoffs this year may strike several departments, officials said.
An announcement of potential layoffs likely would come during mid-year budget talks at the City Council’s second meeting in February, said Lisa Strong, management services director and deputy city treasurer.
The layoffs could hit soon after that meeting, she said.
Strong said while layoffs are not definite, the decision either way is difficult, in part, because the economy’s recovery and the pace of that recovery is still in doubt.
“If things get better, you don’t want to have cut all the staff,” Strong said.
And, officials are hesitant to tap much of the city’s reserves to plug holes in the budget.
“If you do that, you’re just buying time,” Strong said.
The city also is saddled with a potential $33 million payment in redevelopment funds to the state on May 10.
While the state’s reach for that money here and in other local governments is being challenged in court, Rutherford has joined a group of local officials looking to qualify the Local Taxpayer, Public Safety and Transportation Protection Act on the November statewide ballot.
Officials said the measure would prevent Sacramento from looting local government money.
Still, it would be too late to save the city from making tough decisions now, decisions leaders said need to occur prior to July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year.
It’s that type of decision-making they said separates the city not only from other towns that are struggling, but also from past councils here.
Indeed, officials said while the budget situation is not good, it’s not as bad as elsewhere or as bad as it once was here.
“I say that because I’ve looked at cities that have had to do massive layoffs relative to the size of their workforce, or have had to close community centers completely,” Rutherford said. “Fortunately, we haven’t had to do that.”
In comparing the deficit with those in the 1990s, Mayor Mark Nuaimi said this shortfall is not as severe and the city shouldn’t have to gut itself.
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Maybe Acquanetta Warren should drop out of the Assembly race and clean up her fiscal mess. Good grief!
I thought that the new County CAO had turned Fontana around before he left for Ontario? Now both cities are federally designated “impact zone(s)” with their budgets falling apart under the new scrutiny of a depressed economy. These Fontana layoffs are a preview of coming attractions for the County government that has just been infected by Devereauxitis. When he came to Ontario from Fontana he referred to himself as a “son of a bitch” and he relished that title, now we are supposed to believe this current self-described “people person” has the public’s best interest in mind? As goes the County, so goes the local cities in San Bernardino County…sorry Supervisors, you guys got duped by “eastside-westside” politics and the whole County stands to suffer.