By Brooklynn Wong
Last Tuesday, the La Palma City Council and residents got an idea of what the city’s 2019-20 budget will look like, as Administrative Services Director Sea Shelton presented a draft of the budget, and the Council discussed the city’s financial future.
The official budget will not be proposed until next month, at the May 21 City Council Meeting. The agenda will be cleared that night to discuss nothing but the budget.
Then on June 4, a budget will be officially adopted.
The city estimates that there will be $11.8 million in expenditures in 2019-20, the largest bulk of which (44.3%) goes to the police, and 23.5% of which goes to the city’s administrative staff.
All told, there will be approximately $1.9 million left as general unassigned balance, and there was a lengthy discussion at the City Council Meeting as to how this should be allocated.
One project that the Council has expressed strong support for is improving the medians on La Palma, Walker and Moody, and all signs point to the majority of this excess going towards that project. Construction designs are almost complete, and this summer, city staff plans to bring these designs forward and begin the bidding process. There are also additional streets they would like to look into doing the same with after that.
After funds are allocated for that project, there would be $564,800 left over.
City staff suggested putting this money towards recreational events and services, like an “International Day” festival and a dog park, which the Council had previously expressed great interest in, going so far as to put together a couple of pop-up dog park days to test the waters of interest in the city.
Community Services Director Mike Belknap also said the city might do well to put some money toward greater security measures at city-owned facilities.
However at this time, when it came down to it, the Council all seemed to agree that, as Council Member Gerard Goedhart put it, what we don’t have now, we don’t need. Such things seem to be too big a cost for La Palma for the time being.
Council Member Nitesh Patel said keeping “the status quo and not increasing anything is probably the way to go.”
Because La Palma is in good financial standing, but prefers to do the safe thing and put the excess toward a few big projects, and in savings.
One factor that is up in the air is Marathon Petroleum. The company’s presence in La Palma has been a boon to its economy. However it is not clear how long the company will remain in the city. Director Shelton said some of the remaining unassigned general fund balance could go towards offsetting revenue lost if Marathon were to leave.
The Council at this time was simply receiving an overview and not making any decisions. They provided some feedback, and city staff will come back for a more formal discussion at the budget meeting at the City Council meeting on May 21.
