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Three Months After Voters Approve Sales Tax Hike, Council Mainly Approves Mayor/Mgm't Budget Recommendations With Some Quarrels And Little Transparency On Some Changes

  • 8 police officers restored (out of 200 erased since FY10, per management/Mayor) + 2 officers + 2 firefighters (per Mungo) for "Homeless Rapid Response" (unexplained publicly)
  • Engine 8 restored but Rescue 12 and Engine 17 not restored; Richardson supports seeing if November statewide/county/local ballot measures on marijuana, transportation pass, bringing City more revenue; Mayor says City will restore Rescue 12 regardless of election outcome (no details); Supernaw cites benefits of restoring Engine 17, no audible/visible Council support
  • Council specifies up to $500,000 from $2.2 million annually budgeted for LBPD for overtime (used to respond to out-of-scheduled-shift violent crimes, shootings, gangs, plus Directed Enforcement Team operations) for "neighborhood safe streets initiative" at Police Chief's discretion (no details publicly on what this)
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    (Sept. 14, 2016, 8:55 a.m.) -- As seen LIVE on LBREPORT.com, a little over 90 days after LB voters approved raising LB's sales tax ("Measure A") to 10%, LB taxpayers saw the results at the Sept. 13 City Council meeting. Councilmembers mainly approved the city management/Mayor proposed budget recommendations but quarreled for several hours over how to allocate some sums from the "blank check" measure in FY17. Councilmembers also voted without dissent to approve budget changes advanced by 5th district Councilwoman Stacy Mungo (the Mayor's chosen chair for the Council's Budget Oversight Committee), some of which hadn't been discussed or described in detail publicly before the Council's voted actions.

    Vice Mayor Richardson made a motion to delay a decision on restoring Rescue 12 to see if additional city revenue would result from November statewide, countywide and a LB election (marijuana and transportation items), and got a publicly stated commitment by Mayor Garcia to restore Rescue 12 regadless of the election outcome with some plan to be devised. .

    Below are some of the following net results:

    [Scroll down for further.]


    • Eight police officers restored (out of roughly 200 erased since FY10) per management/Mayor plus (per Mungo) two officers and 2 firefighters restored for "homeless rapid response" (no details publicly on what this is)

    • Engine 8 restored (per management/Mayor) but Rescue 12 (NLB) not restored; Austin/Price proposed to restore it by reducing some Measure A infrastructure items, failed on 6-3 Council vote, with Richardson among those opposed. Richardson contended their proposal didn't ensure continued funding, he proposed using possible revenue from November public votes on statewide, County and LB ballot measures; if those measures don't provide sufficient funding or fail, Mayor says City will devise some other plan to restore Rescue 12 (no details)

    • Engine 17 (Stearns Park) not restored; Councilman Supernaw cites its benefits, notes recent fires drew engines from other districts; receives no verbal support from Council for restoration

    • Council specifies up to $500,000 from $2.2 million annually budgeted for LBPD for overtime (that it relies on to respond to out-of-scheduled-shift violent crimes, shootings, gangs, plus Directed Enforcement Team operations) to be directed in Police Chief's discretion for "neighborhood safe streets initiative" (no details publicly on what this)

    • Approves management/Mayor proposed three year plan for various infrastructure items (including street slurry seals, etc.)

    • $500,000 from FY17 savings from Tidelands debt service for Belmont Plaza Pool & Aquatics Center; eliminates General Fund sum for pool. (Councilwoman Pearce proposed, then withdrew proposal, to shift $31 million now allocated from Tidelands away from $100+ million Belmont Pool project to fund other Tidelands projects, later proposed $1.5 million for what she called Tidelands area safety related items (including better lighting in some areas, etc., not approved as budget matter but staff will report on funding beach lighting.)

    • Expanded "Be S.A.F.E" program in four parks
    • Added Sunday library hours at El Dorado Branch Library, may use fines from JetBlue late night flights, if legally possible, to restore Sunday hours at Los Altos library.
    • Voted without any Council discussion to approve Water Dept. water and sewer rate increases [despite previous testimony by taxpayer Diana Lejins threatening litigation; coverage here Among the items discussed in a Council closed session prior to the Council meeting was unspecified anticipated litigation.]

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    Councilwoman Mungo had no voting powers beyond those of other Councilmembers, but because Mayor Garcia had named her to chair the Council's Budget Oversight Committee, he let her present the Committee's budget recommendations, which included a recommendation to approve his budgetr recommendations. This then let her decide (since she made the Council motion) which, if any, "friendly amendments" by other Councilmembers she would accept. Other Councilmembers had the right to make their own motions...but after the public Council failure of the Austin/Price recommendation to restore Rescue 12 (tapping infrastructure funds that had been recommended by the manager/Mayor), most didn't.

    An exception was Vice Mayor Richardson, who voted against the Austin/Price Rescue 12 restoration motion and instead moved to wait until November elections on state, county and local ballot measures that might bring additional revenue to City Hall before restoring Rescue 12; Richardson later received the Mayor's publicly stated commitment to restore Rescue 12 regardless of the outcome of those eletcions.

    Councilman Supernaw received nearly nothing for having supported Measure A (including co-proposing with Mungo a so-called Citizens Oversight Committee to oversee its spending. After reiterating reasons on the merits why restoring Engine 17 to Stearns Park fire station 17 would bring benefits to his district (which has no operating fire station) and beyond, he received no audible support from any Councilmembers to restore Engine 17. However the Council did approve his proposal to use fines from JetBlue late night flights (if legally possible) to restore Sunday hours at the Los Altos library.

    Mayor Garcia directed, without Council dissent that could have overriden his decision and despite objections by taxpayer Ann Cantrell -- to only allow public testimony before items to change the budget were presented by the Mayor's Budget Oversight Committee chair Mungo or others, effectively preventing the public from testifying on Councilmember-proposed changes.

    No speakers testified at the Sept. 13 Council budget session from any organized neighborhood or business groups on increasing police or fire public safety budgeted items (apart from the individual neighborhood group president from Mungo's district supporting Mungo's proposal indicated above.) There was no public testimony from LB's police or firefighter unions. Reps from the LB Public Library Foundation commended the Council for restoring some Sunday library hours.

    Immediately prior to the public Council meeting, Councilmembers held closed session on negotiations with multiple city employee unions, including police and fire who were the two largest funders of campaign for Measure A "blank check" sales tax hike; budget as proposed doesn't publicly set aside sums for raises, which taxpayers will pay from some source(s).

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    Earlier in the day in the Council's Budget Oversight Committee (Mungo, Austin, Price), Councilman Austin, backed by Price, proposed to shift roughly $1.1 mil from Measure A infrastructure sums to restore Rescue 12 in NLB. City mgm't staffer Lea Eriksen said restoring Rescue 12 would require identifying $3+ million from other Measure A funds, which would reduce some of the items Mayor/manager proposed for infrastructure. Mungo sided with management, said she supports restoring Rescue 12 but only if Austin could come up with $3 mil from other sources, said eliminating currently listed infrastructure projects would leave 5th district with most streets for repairs the worst impacted...and blamed her predecessor [Schipske] for not addressing backlog of street repairs.

    When Austin and Price voted to recommend using Measure A funds to restore Rescue 12, Mungo refused to support it, saying she wouldn't vote to recommend an unbalanced budget. Price contended it's not unbalanced because Measure A sums are expected to continue...and Price added an amendment, supported by Austin, to shift $700,000 from "wage enforcement" (as part of minimum wage actions that Council approved a week earlier over her objections) to instead restore police officers. Price called Council majority voted action a week earlier for wage enforcement (without knowing if City has legal authority to conduct such actions) was "throwing money down the toilet." Later, after Council majority voted 6-3 (including Richardson) to reject Austin-Price proposal to restore Rescue 12, Price apologized for her choice of words.

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