City budget cuts threaten parks and the symphony
(Editor’s note: This is the second article in an ongoing series detailing the Santa Monica City Council’s special budget sessions, which were held this week at City Hall.) Santa Monicans will have to spend more time waiting in line at the planning department, put up with more litter in neighborhood parks and maybe even do without the local symphony if next year’s proposed budget is adopted.
The last six of 15 City Hall departments made presentations to the Santa Monica City Council on Wednesday, outlining roughly $1.5 million in proposed cuts to help lift the city out of next year’s $16.1 million budget deficit.
“We knew coming into this we were going to have a severe, serious challenge to meet come June 17th,” Mayor Richard Bloom said Wednesday. “And going through this process for two days and hearing department by department just where the cuts will be and how bad things really are is depressing.”
Each department, except fire and police, was asked to come up with a five percent cut in their budget. The first 9 departments proposed nearly $4 million in cuts on Tuesday.
All told, the city wants to slash $5.4 million from its operating budget and $1.6 million from capital improvements (see related story), raise an additional $5.2 million in revenues and save $3.9 million through various policy changes, said Mike Dennis, the city’s finance director.
The City Council will adopt a formal budget on June 17.
Among the proposed cuts Tuesday was $584,000 from the planning department, which is expected to slow the time it takes to push a permit through City Hall by seven percent, among other things.
Suzanne Frick, planning department director, said the cuts are coming at a time when services and enforcement of building code violations are already suffering.
“In many respects, the service we give is unacceptable,” Frick said. “We’re not satisfied with the progress we’re making at all.”
Local architect David Hibbert echoed that complaint. The problem, he said, is a conflict of wills between anti-growth legislation passed by the City Council and the simultaneous desire by councilmembers to promote independent businesses.
“There’s no other city that I’ve ever worked in that compares to it,” he said. “I get calls all the time from people saying, ‘I’ve been in building and safety plan check for seven months and I don’t know what to do.’These are mom and pop (businesses).”
Also on the chopping block Wednesday was more than $1 million from the community and cultural services department, which commands a $29 million budget.
Park maintenance will suffer as a result of the cuts, said Barbara Stinchfield, director of community and cultural services. Barbecue grills and picnic tables will not be replaced as quickly, resurfacing of tennis and basketball courts will be delayed and weeding and litter removal will be reduced, she said.
In addition, several recreation programs offered by the city will be scaled back and two youth programs will be eliminated entirely.
And things will only get worse in 2004-2005, Stinchfield added.
“I want to call out for an anesthetic,” Councilman Kevin McKeown said after Stinchfield’s presentation. “These are the most painful cuts I’ve heard.”
Stinchfield’s department also oversees grants to social services and non-profits throughout the city. The Santa Monica Symphony Association, which has put on free concerts at the Civic Auditorium for 58 years, is among those groups.
Instead of receiving $29,000, as it has in years past, the proposed budget calls for a symphony grant of $12,500.
Because staging the symphony for each four-show season costs roughly $115,000, the reduced funding puts the symphony’s future in danger, said David Bendett, president of the symphony association’s board.
Bendett said the event would be able to survive if the association receives only the five percent cut in funding it was anticipating. Instead, officials proposed a 56 percent reduction — though other groups were cut by a smaller percentage and a few were given additional funds.
Stinchfield defended the proposed cuts, saying the symphony has received more money than other groups in its funding bracket because it is a valuable resource to the community. It received less than the year before because of the council’s direction to open the grant applications to new agencies, Stinchfield added.
Two new agencies qualified for $5,500 grants in 2003- 2004. The overall value of grants Stinchfield’s department hands out was reduced by five percent to $174,000, which was split between 10 agencies for next year.
“When you only have a limited amount to hand out, you look at it a number of different ways to receive the most equity that you can,” Stinchfield said. “The symphony is in the smallest group in terms of the size of the budget. And the overall rationale, which was an objective rationale, was to give the larger agencies larger dollar amounts and the smaller agencies got smaller dollar amounts.
“They’re not easy decisions. It was excruciating.” Bendett called the cuts to the symphony unfair and said supporters will turn out to voice their concerns at the June 17 budget meeting at City Hall.
Some councilmembers are already on their side. “It’s incredible because there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to (the grants),” Councilman Bob Holbrook said. “This is a murky thing.
“If it is left the way it is, (the symphony) will probably pack it in.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 30, 2003. Read the original PDF.