Pomona May Slash Top Jobs to Pay for More Police

When Tomas Ursua was elected to the City Council six weeks ago, tilting the balance of the council in a different direction, there was much talk of a “new philosophy” in city government.

This philosophy has manifested itself most clearly in the council’s approach to the city’s budget.

The council majority is calling for major changes in priorities in the 1989-90 budget designed by former City Administrator A. J. Wilson and passed by the council last year. Specifically, council members Ursua, C. L. (Clay) Bryant and Nell Soto say the city desperately needs to find $2.8 million to bolster police and fire protection and should make whatever cuts are necessary to pay for the increase.

The three argue that Pomona’s crime problem terrorizes citizens and scares off prospective businesses. They favor a plan to put 19 new patrol officers on the street by early 1990, although that would require deep cuts in most other city programs.

Although no one is sure how much will have to be cut from Pomona’s $45-million budget, the council directed the heads of various city departments to prepare reports on how they would absorb a 10% cut in their budgets.

The department heads responded that they would have to cut as many as 33 positions, such as secretaries, janitors, building inspectors, and parks and recreation personnel. Also, the city would have to turn off about half of its 5,193 street lights, and the library would have to be closed on Saturdays.

The council majority turned thumbs down on the department heads’ suggestions.

“I didn’t see one management position on that list,” Ursua said. “They want to cut services. The new direction is really saying, ‘Let’s start at the top and see what resources are up there.’ We’ve got to go back and look at management.”

Mayor Donna Smith, who has cast the lone dissenting vote against many of the new majority’s initiatives, said she has long favored an expanded police force. However, she said the sweeping reductions proposed by her three colleagues threaten to gut many vital programs and have caused a panic among City Hall workers.

There may be a “mass exodus at City Hall,” Smith said. “We can’t expect good, dedicated employees to work in a situation that is so stressful and has such a cloud of intimidation.”

Bryant disagreed. “It’s no mass exodus,” he said. “People who are doing their jobs are not worried about their jobs. It’s just a matter of clearing out the deadwood. I’m getting all kinds of recommendations from employees on jobs that should be cut. Non-producers and those who produce only havoc should go out the door.”

The new majority began paring the budget May 31 by eliminating three top-level administrative positions--the two deputy city administrators and an executive assistant--saving $226,000 a year. The council also voted, 3 to 1, to redirect $180,000 in annual revenue produced by a business license surcharge from the Pomona Economic Development Corp. (PEDCorp) to the police.

Last week, the council added another $676,000 to the revenue side of Pomona’s budget by creating a new tax on exhibitors who rent space at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds when the grounds are not being used for the fair.

This was a relatively painless revenue source, because the $150-a-year license fee for promoters and $1.50-a-day charge to exhibitors are comparable to amounts charged by the cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Anaheim, said City Treasurer Pat Elliot.

Now hard choices must be made.

The person charged with the task of suggesting where the cuts should be made at City Hall is interim City Administrator Andrew Lazzaretto, hired by the new majority last month.

In stints as city manager of Stanton, Alhambra and Burbank, Lazzaretto gained a reputation as a frugal administrator, a practitioner of what he calls “cutback management.” Yet even he said the job is not going to be easy.

“Whenever you’re dealing with these kinds of dollars, it’s always a challenge to squeeze that out of the budget,” Lazzaretto said. “The trouble is that when you’re walking through these (city) departments, there’s nothing labeled ‘fat.’ ”

Lazzaretto is analyzing the budget and said he hopes to have the information to help him decide where to suggest cuts this week.

Although most city employees have been “given some comfort” by the council’s assurances that administrative positions will be the first to be cut, many City Hall workers are edgy, said Thomas M. Ramsey, supervisor of field services for the San Bernardino Public Employees Assn., which represents 250 Pomona city employees.

“The concern is that you can only cut so deep before you start to strike muscle,” Ramsey said, adding that the way in which the council eliminated the three management positions has made city employees uneasy.

“It doesn’t seem to be thoughtful,” Ramsey said. “It seems like they’re just going in and swinging an ax. . . . It seems like the thought strikes a member of the City Council, a motion is made and the vote is taken. . . . If that approach were taken with the general employees, I’d probably have (the city) in court.”

Mayor Smith offered a similar criticism of the three majority council members.

“It seems that whatever sounds good politically at the moment is being acted upon,” she said. “They don’t want to deal with facts or reason. . . . I really think that we have three people who are trying to show the world who’s boss. It’s a power play, it’s an ego trip and I don’t think they realize how they’re hurting this city.”

Soto said, however, that the new majority is simply following a different philosophy.

“The city is now in the hands of the people, and there’s a lot of resistance to this change,” she said. “Have you seen any progress from that old guard? The city has gone down the tubes. Is that what they want, to have empty stores and crime-ridden streets?”