Officials Outline Overbudget Wish List : Budget: Glendale Finance Director Brian Butler says city projects planned over the next five years exceed expected revenues by more than $22 million.

Glendale City Council members worked intensely at setting priorities for the city during a three-day retreat last week, then learned in the final session Saturday that the city lacks the funds to meet all of their goals.

Finance Director Brian Butler warned that projects planned during the next five years--including relocation and improvement of fire stations, street and traffic modifications, renovation of the Glendale Civic Auditorium, preservation of the Alex Theatre and expansion of the Galleria shopping mall--exceed expected revenue by more than $22 million.

“There’s no way we are going to be able to do all of those things. . . . You people are confronting some real decisions,” Butler told the five-member council during its second annual work furlough at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort Hotel in Oxnard.

Councilman Larry Zarian said the warning was “the first time in my six years on the City Council that I’ve heard this type of conversation. Until now, we’ve always heard that we have plenty of money.”

Glendale has long prided itself on its pay-as-you-go capital improvement program. It is one of only a few cities in California that has no bonded indebtedness against its general fund. But Butler said Saturday that the city will have to trim its priorities or consider going into debt.

“Glendale is not the same sleepy community it used to be,” said Butler, who has managed the city’s money for 12 years. He said the balance in the unallocated capital improvement fund has plummeted from $24.5 million in 1985 to $8.4 million today, largely because of massive public works projects that the city has undertaken to keep up with rapid growth and redevelopment.

The city expects to earn about $99 million over the next five years from sales, gas and utility taxes as well as operational profits from the Scholl Canyon Landfill, but already has earmarked $122 million in expenditures, Butler said.

In addition, the city has been hit with increased liability claims--more than $2 million in the last year alone. Claims had typically cost only $50,000 to $100,000 a year, Butler said.

“I see more of that coming,” said Butler, who suggested that the city at least double its annual allocation to its self-insured general liability fund.

The future’s financial constraints provided a sobering end to the three-day retreat in which council members attempted to deal with the problems of redevelopment, housing, transportation, waste management and planning.

The retreat, which cost taxpayers $3,200 to $3,800, was called so that council members could meet with city department heads to discuss programs in detail without interruptions or phone calls, said Robert McFall, assistant city manager.

While the resulting priority list is lengthy, the council will have to trim it to fit the city’s $223-million annual budget. A study session to do that is expected to be held early next year.

One of the city’s most ambitious projects calls for further expansion of the Galleria shopping mall, now proposed to extend south from Harvard Street to Colorado Street between Central Avenue and Brand Boulevard.

Jeanne Armstrong, redevelopment director, said the city has begun negotiations with Nordstrom, which plans to relocate from the Galleria II to a larger store in the proposed Galleria III, and with Macy’s, which has expressed interest in opening a Bullock’s in Glendale.

Any expansion of the shopping mall would require the city to relocate the central fire station, a main storm drain and other utilities serving the downtown area--a major undertaking in time and expense, said George Miller, public works director.

Despite the project’s complexity, city officials said, retail sales growth is vital to increasing and protecting revenues that support the increasing cost of providing services to a booming population.

“Residential growth costs us money; economic growth is our life blood,” said City Manager David Ramsay.

Managing residential growth is a priority among council members, who have been working for the past year to curtail rapid development of apartments and condominiums. Officials are studying ways to cap development in at least some areas but warned that their plans may not be legal.

The city, which last week renewed a year-old moratorium blocking new multifamily development, hired a legal firm this month to help draft an ordinance to control growth, said James Glazer, principal planner.

Building caps have typically been upheld by the courts only if a city lacks water, sewers or other utilities to support growth, he said. Glendale has planned so well for the future that those legal requirements might not apply, Glazer said.

But curtailment of development could be justified because of crowded schools, traffic congestion and lack of adequate street parking, officials said. A study session on the issue is expected to be held in November.

While the city seeks to control growth, it also wants to make single-family housing affordable for more people. Council members suggested that the city consider sponsoring home loans and down payments for moderate-income families, particularly city-employed police, fire and other emergency workers.

Mayor Jerold Milner said two-thirds of the city’s emergency workers live far outside of town, which poses a danger to the city in the event of an earthquake or other disaster. “They won’t be able to get here for a week,” Milner said.

He suggested that the city set aside at least $1 million a year in property tax revenue raised in the redevelopment zone to build an endowment fund for the future, in which interest earned on the account could be used to subsidize low- and moderate-income housing.

State law that took effect last year requires the city to use 20% of its redevelopment tax revenue for housing, but the city has yet to decide how to use that money, said Madalyn Blake, director of community development and housing.

So far, the city has spent most of its federal and state housing money--apart from redevelopment funds--on building units for the elderly and subsidizing rents for seniors and low-income families. Blake said new regulations require the city to make a greater effort to support low- and moderate-income families, a politically unpopular issue in the past.

Several council members suggested that the city acquire older, single-family homes that could be sold to low-income buyers rather than be torn down and replaced with high-cost, high-density multifamily units. “We prefer home ownership,” Milner said.

He proposed that the endowment fund or a portion of redevelopment revenue be used to acquire houses from absentee landlords. “We need to invest in something that will build in value,” he said.

Council members also asked for a get-tough policy on owners of substandard buildings. They urged that the city adopt procedures that would allow code enforcement officers to issue citations for violations of building standards, rather than the time-consuming and often-unwieldy process used by the city attorney’s office.

City staff members pledged to bring back concepts for a comprehensive housing assistance program within three months.

Expansion of the Beeline intra-city shuttle was given high priority in meeting the transportation needs of Glendale. Council members informally gave staff members approval to propose four new buses to increase frequency of service on the route through the redevelopment zone, the Civic Center and Glendale Community College, and to extend the free service south along Brand and Central to Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center.

The staff was urged to explore ways that the shuttle could be used to transport public and private employees to and from their jobs, thereby reducing downtown traffic.

Reorganization of the Public Works Department was proposed last week as a way for the city to take a more aggressive role in waste management, including development of a waste-to-energy plant and expanded recycling and hazardous waste disposal programs.

As a result, the city next year is expected to consider hiring up to three new employees in the Public Works Department, including a specialist in waste management planning.

While officials admit that they do not expect to meet all of the goals outlined at the Oxnard retreat, Milner called the marathon study session “a very, very profitable three days.”