SAN CLEMENTE : City Budget to Be Cut by $800,000

Although the cuts are not as bad as feared, officials are gearing up to slash about $800,000 from the city budget in the wake of funding reductions approved last week as part of the long-awaited state budget.

“It’s bad enough, but it could have been worse,” Mayor Joseph Anderson said.

At worst, city officials feared about $2 million in cuts from the state, or about 10% of the city’s $20-million general fund budget. Instead, the city will have to deal with a loss of about $630,000 in property tax funds and $170,000 in Redevelopment Agency revenue, Assistant City Manager Paul Gudgeirsson said.

In recent weeks, city officials have been analyzing potential cuts in all city departments and plan to present the City Council with a list of options, from cutting services and making layoffs to contracting out for police services and creating a utility tax, by the end of September or early October.

“I think every department will be impacted,” Gudgeirsson said. “We’re also afraid that the state is not out of trouble yet, and we’re thinking we need to think about next year.”

The City Council had cut about $2 million from the budget in June, including the elimination of about 17 positions. The new round of cuts would be retroactive to July 1 and must be made as soon as possible, officials said.

“The longer you wait, the worse it gets,” Anderson said.

Probably the most controversial cost-cutting option still being contemplated by city leaders is disbanding the 60-year-old Police Department and contracting with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for police services.

San Clemente Peace Officers Assn. president John Coppock said he hopes that the proposal will “die once and for all” by the end of the month, especially considering that more than 6,000 residents in the past three weeks signed petitions in favor of keeping the Police Department. The petitions will be presented to the City Council when the budget reduction options are debated.

“The support is incredible,” Coppock said. “Every day people come up and voice their support.”

Despite the support, officers and department employees are still nervous about the future, Coppock said. “It can still go either way because $800,000 is still a lot of money,” he said.

Even if contracting out for police services is rejected, the department will probably still face significant cuts since it receives about 50% of the general fund, he added. Potential cuts in the Police Department budget are still being analyzed and few specifics are yet available.