Outlook for Morro Bay City Budget

by Jack McCurdy

A $25.7 million Morro Bay city budget for 2010-11, calling for the layoff of employees, cutting back the Dial-A-Ride service that many seniors depend on, and eliminating the televised coverage of most city advisory board meetings, is scheduled for adoption by the City Council on Monday, June 14.

Another public workshop to discuss the proposed budget had been scheduled for Wednesday, June 2, but was cancelled, leaving much less opportunity for residents to interact with the Council and staff on the reductions in staffing, funding, and services that are set to be enacted.

The layoffs would begin on July 1, at the same time that most city employees would begin receiving a four per cent salary increase.

Overall, the budget faced a $900,000 shortfall if spending were kept at about the same level as the current year, 2009-10. That was eliminated by various reductions in spending and the staff cuts, Susan Slayton, the city's administrative services director who oversees the budget, said. The city has experienced declining revenues and rising costs, a city budget report said. For instance, Morro Bay's sales tax revenue dropped more than 10% last year.

The new budget contains a reserve of $2.97 million, city staff members said, and planned spending in 2010-11 does not require dipping into it. Achieving a balanced budget without using reserves has been highlighted as a goal of the Council as well as candidates campaigning in the June 8 election. At the same time, the general fund would be reduced by about $264,000 to a total of $10.2 million in 2010-11.

The layoffs result from the elimination of three currently occupied staff positions and reducing three others to part-time. The three positions to be cut are described in a report to the Council by city manager Andrew Lueker as an accountant, a building official, and an office assistant in the Recreation and Parks department.

In addition, an administrative-technician in the Fire Department and a crime prevention coordinator in the Police Department each would be reduced to half time, and a permit technician would be reduced by one-quarter, the report said.

The budget shows that spending in 2010-11 would be reduced by about $555,000 from the savings of $370,843 in eliminating and reducing positions, along with an unspecified amount for what was described as additional cuts in other part-time positions and interns (that were not listed).

At a Council budget workshop on May 19, Council member Betty Winholtz asked if the union representing the city employees had been "asked whether they would prefer to have their salary increases cut or see people laid off." Lueker said that had been discussed with the union, and "they were not interested." Later, when asked specifically if the union representatives for most city employees had been asked whether they might be willing to forego the planned four per cent salary increases in 2010-11 to save jobs, she said the city is required to notify the union and confer with its representatives if layoffs are being proposed, and she said she assumes that point—a tradeoff of foregoing all or part of the salary increases for avoiding staff cutbacks—was discussed between the city's and the union's representatives.

Slayton said it would be a matter of whether the employees would be willing to "open their contracts" with the city to consider this matter.

Dial-A-Ride (DAR), a door-to-door public transit service that the city started in 1977, provides vehicles that travel within the city limits in response to calls received. There are no fixed routes. Vehicles take people of all ages door-to-door while making minor detours on the way to pick up and deliver other passengers traveling in the same general direction. Users are asked to call DAR at least two hours before seeking pickups.

The DAR would be replaced with a system called fixed-flex, which would be based mainly on transit vehicles using a fixed route, much like regular public buses do, although apparently there still would be opportunities for some to be picked up at their doors if calls for service were made a day ahead of time, but reportedly limited to one or two per hour.

A staff budget report said there are no general funds available to allocate to transit, including DAR, without having to take it from other general fund activities or services, noting that funding from the state for such transit services has been cut repeatedly over the past three fiscal years.

As a result, DAR would be short more than $137,000 to operate at existing service levels in 2010-11, it said.

The report said the proposal is to replace the current DAR service with "a fixed route service," which was described as a "hybrid transit system combining fixed route service with limited dial-a-ride service." The flex route, it said, operates on a fixed route with specified transit stops but can also “flex” (or “deviate”) off routes to pick up or drop off passengers who have called the day before to schedule a trip that is within three quarters of a mile of the fixed route.

While the "flex-fixed route service provides for less dial-a-ride type service than is currently provided," the report said, it does provide limited dial-a-ride-type service for those senior or disabled individuals who might not be eligible to become certified under the American Disabilities Act (ADA) to use Runabout paratransit service, which provides curb-to-curb transportation to eligible disabled people of all ages. This flex provision would address the Council’s concern to provide those individuals with some dial-a-ride type service until they can become ADA certified, the report said.

The Council also instructed the staff to investigate the community volunteer bus system used in Cambria as a possible way to provide service that would be lost in the DAR cutback.

The budget also calls for elimination of video broadcasting of all city advisory boards, except for the Council and the city Planning Commission. They include the Community Promotions, Harbor Advisory, Public Works Advisory, Recreation and Parks and Tourism Business Improvement District Advisory boards. In addition, the funding for minutes to be taken at the Public Works Advisory Board meetings for city records apparently also will be eliminated since the staff position responsible for the minutes has been cut back.

At the last budget workshop on May 19, Council member Noah Smukler said he feels there is "a lot of value" in telecasting the meetings.

"There may not be many people in the audience at those meetings, but there are many at home watching." He said these boards "are dealing with key issues," such as monetary, land management and services, which residents are interested in. But he said he would accept the cuts.

Winholtz said what she described as a $22,000 savings from ceasing the telecasts is "a very small price to pay" to enable residents to watch the meetings. As far as discontinuing the recording of minutes of the Public Works Advisory Board meetings, she said those "records are irreplaceable."

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