Mayor Garcia said the "single most important thing is ensuring that we stay financially responsible" and voiced what amounts to city management's budget stance shared by now-exited Mayor Foster (who made his own FY15 budget recommendations a week earlier.). Both management and Foster recommended that a portion of a current General Fund "surplus" be put aside. However management and Foster both acknowledged that the "surplus" put aside is expected to be needed to address upcoming anticipated deficits [spending expected to exceed revenue] starting in 2017. Garcia didn't mention the expected deficits and told the audience that the city "is in a position now where we have a surplus, and I know that Councilwoman Price and I have discussed this, we're going to ensure that the days of overspending are over, that we focus on putting money into our reserves, that we build a strong financial base, that will ensure that moving forward we keep our libraries open where they need to be, that we're funding our public safety resources adequately, that we have money put away for a future rainy day, for providing the basic services that our residents expect." In her remarks, Councilwoman Price said Mayor Garcia has chosen her to chair Council's Public Safety Committee (which Garcia chaired under Mayor Foster) and she will also be a member of the Council's Economic Development Committee. (Council committees have no independent enacting/blocking powers but hold meetings and can make non-binding voted recommendations to the full City Council.) Neither Garcia nor Price made any mention of beginning to restore portion of public safety services for taxpayers including police (200 officers no longer provided) and fire services (fire engines no longer provided at Belmont Shore Fire Station 8, Los Altos Station 17 and ELB Station 18) which were eliminated under Mayor Foster by his supportive Council majorities, which included Garcia. Under LB's City Charter, the Mayor can recommend but has no enacting power, and a Council majority has the power to accept or reject budget recommendations -- and take taxpayer and neighborhood group testimony and input into account -- in making its own budget enactment motions and adopting a FY15 budget by Sept. 15. The Council's budget enacting action is subject to a line-item Mayoral veto, which six Council votes can override. A Council majority can also modify most of its spending budget "on any Tuesday" (at any properly agendized meeting) after the budget is adopted. LBREPORT.com plans to carry the July 22 Council budget session LIVE. Details to follow. blog comments powered by Disqus
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