Ventura City Council to vote on $306 million spending plan, new fees and police contract
Arlene Martinez
Ventura's elected officials will vote on a final spending plan for the upcoming year, set new fees for people doing business with or getting services from the city and approve a new contract with members of police management on Monday night.
The proposed $306 million budget for 2018-19 is a 10 percent increase over last year's budget of $278 million. That's driven primarily by increases in the gas tax fund, which grew by $4.7 million to $10.2 million, and water/wastewater projects.
The city's general fund budget is $118.5 million, up from $115.2 million in 2017-18.
"A steady growth in property tax, sales tax, license and permit revenue and charges for services are major contributors to the $3.3 million increase," a staff report says, in part.
RISING PENSION COSTS:Ventura City Council approves new police contract with pay raises just over 5%
The general fund budget includes $1.1 million to boost reserves, down from the $1.5 million slated when the budget process started. Part of the money was redirected to the Museum of Ventura County, which will receive $250,000, and funding a land-use attorney, according to the staff report.
The budget also includes $5.6 million in one-time funding related to the Thomas Fire.
One of the biggest increases to the city continues to be pension costs. The city will pay roughly $19.7 million in 2018-19, a 43 percent increase from four years earlier, according to actuarial reports from the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
Those costs will continue to climb significantly for several years.
The city has two CalPERS plans: one that covers non-safety employees and one that covers police and fire employees. The non-safety plan was 75 percent funded as of June 30, 2016, the most recent year available. For police and fire, the plan was 59 percent funded.
The Measure O fund, which comes from a half-cent sales tax city voters approved in November 2016, sits at $11.8 million. That includes $1.1 million in unspent funds from fiscal year 2017-18, the report says.
Recommendations for that pot include just under $1.9 million for the city's Safe and Clean Public Places Initiative. Of that, $225,000 would be for the park ambassador program and $300,000 for a homeless shelter. It also slates $100,000 for a community granting program, $35,000 for a strategic plan targeting senior citizens, $1.6 million for street reconstruction and deferred maintenance, according to the staff report.
See the full budget at https://bit.ly/2HOseYB.
The council will also hear about changes to its fee and rate schedule. The schedule is meant to correlate with what it costs the city to provide planning, land development, parks and recreation, building permit and other services.
According to the staff report, 341 fees will increase by 3 percent or $5 or less. An additional 28 fees will climb by more than 3 percent, 82 fees will remain unchanged and seven will go down. There are four new fees related to water meters.
See the full schedule at https://bit.ly/2JNxaib.
Also Monday, the council will vote on a contract with its police management union, which includes assistant police chiefs and commanders. The contract covers July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2020.
Similar to the police union, between June 2014 and July 6, 2019, the start of the second year of the proposed contract, police management will have received seven raises totaling 18.8 percent. During that time, the group also increased their pension contribution.
The city does not offer post-retirement health care — a cost that can add millions in the public agencies where it's offered — but it does allow employees to contribute up to 2 percent of their salary to a retirement health saving plans (up from 1 percent previously).
See the full contract at https://bit.ly/2ym44oX.
Monday's meeting will starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 501 Poli St.