• Declined to restore add'l citywide deployable police officers (leaves 186 such officers not restored despite Measure A sales tax that Mayor/Council will ask voters to extend permanently in March 2020 ballot item).

• Effectively committed LB taxpayers to spend $13-$20 million to redesign/rebuild a new Fire Stn 9 at a location to be determined by demolishing existing Station 9 (3917 LB Blvd.), shifted $1.5-$2.0 mil to put a temporary facility on the Stn. 9 site and set aside sums from Measure A for a future permanent facility. The Council action follows an August 30 city management memo that cited (but didn't provide documentation) of mold and maintenance issues.

• Temporarily funded restoration of Fire Engine 17 (Argonne Ave.) using "one-time" Measure A funds for FYs 20 and 21; in a city management memo (previously coverage here) in which management acknowledged it's currently unclear how Engine 17 will be funded thereafter. The Council used the same funding source to provide 6 bicycle officers that the Mayor/Council recommended for FY19 that weren't delivered in FY19

LBREPORT.com will have additional details on specific items separately.

The Council's budget approval agenda item included 16 separately listed agendized Council voted actions, each requiring a Council vote, but Mayor Garcia opened and closed public testimony after only allowing the public to speak at the opening of all the items collectively (with each speaker allowed only 90 seconds each.) Among the separately listed actions were recommendations by the Council's "Budget Oversight Committee" (which the public wouldn't know unless they'd heard them a few hours earlier when the Committee met at 2:30 p.m.)

The first public speaker, Ann Cantrell, questioned the procedure, to which Mayor Garcia replied that the public could speak to any of the budget items they wished.

[Scroll down for further.]

Ms. Cantrell was the first of several speakers to object to the Water Dept. rate increase. Ms. Cantrell cited Prop 218 (now being legally challenged by ratepayers Diana Lejins and Angela Kimball LBREPORT.com coverage here.) Ann Christensen objected to using the rate increase on a necessity (water) in part to fund City Hall budget spending. Corliss Lee noted that 1,443 people submitted protests to the Water Dept (possibly a record number) which she acknowledged wasn't sufficient to meet the "impossible number" of 45,000 account holders to stop the action, but noted the Council has the ability to reject the rate increase. Regina Taylor also spoke in opposition. Angela Kimball (one of the co-petitioner/plaintiffs in the Prop 218 legal action) said that neither she nor co-petitioner/plaintiff Diana Lejins were seeking any sums but were seeking to uphold the state constituion in Prop 218. Also speaking in opposition was Carlos Ovalle. [The Council went on to accept the Water Dept. transfer as part of the FY20 budget.]

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Several speaksers spoke in support of Mayor Garcia's recommendation to allocate $100,000 for phase-two of the Bluff Park lampost historic preservation project (although one speaker spoke in opposition.) Multiple speakers sought additioanl funding for better language interpretation and language access policies.

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