Rancho Palos Verdes OKs $9.3-Million City Budget

The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council has adopted a $9.3-million budget for 1988-89, a slight increase over the budget for the current fiscal year that ends Thursday.

Finance Director Kevin N. Smith said the budget permits the city “to maintain a level of service . . . that the citizens are used to.” He said there are no changes in city services except the addition of two staff members for enforcement of city building and safety codes. As of mid-June, the city had 253 active cases, nearly half of them relating to building code violations or building without permits.

Code enforcement sparked a heated discussion at a council workshop this week, as Mayor Robert A. Ryan charged that the city is getting a reputation for “Gestapo” tactics against people for minor infractions such as illegal fences.

But Councilman John C. McTaggart countered that some “scumbags” in Rancho Palos Verdes knowingly violate the law--including home remodeling without proper permits--and accused Ryan of wanting to ignore ordinances he helped pass.

The largest expenditure in the budget, $1.6 million, is for public safety services the city receives under a contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Second largest is $1.4 million for street maintenance and sweeping, tree trimming and sidewalk repair.

Major revenue sources are $2.2 million from state motor vehicle registration fees and utility franchise taxes, $1.9 million in direct taxes, including property and sales taxes, and $1 million in planning fees paid for building and safety services.

Money Vanished After Vote

The council had to trim or postpone some of its 46 projects to reconstruct deteriorating streets and storm drains, for a total savings of $6.2 million. Money to pay for much of the work vanished on June 7 when voters narrowly defeated a five-year extension of the utility users tax, which has brought about $5 million to city coffers since the council enacted it two years ago. It expires in November.

The largest savings were achieved with postponement of repaving or reconstruction of Palos Verdes Drive East, a three-phase project totaling $4.2 million.

The city also will save $900,000 by delaying portions of the reconstruction of Palos Verdes Drive South between Point Vicente and Wayfarers’ Chapel. The city will wait until it receives street improvement money from new developments along the drive, including a proposed hotel-conference center at the defunct Marineland.

The staff is to report to the council within six months on progress or changes in the street program and possible sources of new revenue that would allow the postponed work to be scheduled.

Council members Douglas M. Hinchliffe and Jacki Bacharach were named to a council committee to meet with residents about placing a new capital improvements tax measure--a special parcel tax or a utility tax--on the ballot in 1989. The council wants a citizens group to provide leadership for the tax proposal. Hinchliffe and Bacharach will report back to the council in September.