City Council budget workshop Tuesday, May 9
Unlike most cities, Coronado is in fine financial shape. Its general fund is balanced. For the coming fiscal year it has budgeted $53.6 million in revenues and $53.2 million in expenditures. If all goes as expected there will be $400,000 left in the budget at the end of 2018, according to City Manager Blair King as he addressed the city council at its annual budget workshop.
The workshop is held a month before the council votes on the budget, to give it, and the public, time to review the budget. The vote will take place on June 6, 2017.
This year’s budget reflects the conservative approach city leaders have always taken. “We are pessimistic about revenues and assume all expenditures will be made,” King said.
There is also a long-tradition of setting money aside in funds to assure long-term solvency. For example, over the years it has taken steps to mitigate increasing pension costs by prepaying into CalPERS, the state managed pension fund, by over budgeting pension costs, and setting aside money in a lockbox fund. As of June 30, the fund will have $4 million, King reported at the workshop.
The city also has additional revenue sources. By June 2018, it expects to have $21 million from repayment of redevelopment loans it made to the school district. There is $8 million in the fund now and another $5 million is due presently. The state holds the money and it is paying it back in increments since the city took the state to court over the money and won.
There is $1 million left in the Harpst fund and it continues to draw about 1.5% interest, which King estimates will add $8,000 more to the fund. The bridge toll fund has $35,000; most of this will go to the Gateway Project. The city also expects revenue from a statewide gas tax enacted last month.
Although the city has reserves and a good cash flow, it does have expenses – personnel, administration, facilities maintenance, and capital improvement projects (CIP) taking a large chunk. One quarter of the budget goes toward CIP. A number of these, the Gateway Project and the Glorietta Pump Station for example, have been in the works for a number of years.
This year’s budget shows several new CIPs, including a system to improve communication between police officers and dispatchers, under-grounding utilities, improving the Pomona-Glorietta intersection in front of the Coronado Tennis Center, upgrading the Orange Avenue medians in front of the Hotel del and the Glorietta Bay Inn, and Sunset Park and Ocean Boulevard street improvements. Mayor Richard Bailey stressed that these projects would not include a bike path on the beach. Efforts to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists were blocked over opposition of a proposed multi-use path described in the city’s Bicycle Masterplan.
The public will have ample time to weigh in on each of the projects when they come back to council for a vote.
Additional topics from the workshop:
Bailey asked the staff to access the feasibility of expanding the library hours. “Whenever I go to the library there is a line of people waiting to get in,” he said. Indeed, there are some 345,000 visits to the library every year, according to Christian Esquevin, Director of Library Services. In resident satisfaction surveys, the library always ranks at the top.
The council voted to set aside $200,000 for its own relinquishment study to determine if it’s in the city’s best interest to take over jurisdiction of portions of state highways 282 and 75. Caltrans is currently conducting its own study, but City Councilman Mike Donovan wanted to “get a third party to look.”
The council wants more input on the Fourth Avenue model block plan. The concept includes new lighting and landscaping and is expected to serve as “footprint for the rest of the corridor,” King said. Councilman Whitney Benzian proposed adding more trees to the mix. “It would have an environmental impact [counteracting the] cars sitting there,” he said.
Councilwoman Carrie Downey wanted the TOT revenues in the general fund separated. Doing so, she said, would allow the council to know how well our hotels and businesses on the main street are doing. Reports on both will be ready for the June 6 council meeting.
