Glendale Gets Conservative With Budget : Spending: Refusing to raise taxes, the City Council outlines a plan that includes no new programs and freezes city services.

After a year of unprecedented growth in city services, the city of Glendale will return to fiscally conservative ways next year by adopting an almost zero-growth budget, officials said this week.

The new budget should allow for inflation increases and additional personnel in the Police and Planning departments, but no new programs will be added, officials determined at a City Council study session in which a preliminary 1990-91 budget proposal was discussed.

In addition to freezing city services at current levels, council members instructed City Manager David Ramsay to cut a number of capital improvement projects that were part of a five-year plan in an attempt to make capital expenditure match revenues.

Council members said they would not raise taxes and would not sign a budget with more than a 5% increase to keep up with inflation. That would limit the size of the new budget to about $255 million.

They said they were caught by surprise with the growth of last year’s spending program of almost three times the inflation rate. They called Monday’s study session to make sure that city staff understood the council’s priorities for the upcoming budget.

“I want to be clear about this. If we are going to run the city like a business, we can’t pay for what we can’t afford,” Councilman Larry Zarian said after the session. “I won’t sign a budget with an increase above the inflation level because I’m not willing to raise taxes.”

The final budget proposal will be presented to council members in mid-May for adoption before June 1.

The preliminary proposal introduced Monday seemed to satisfy the council’s desire to reduce spending. The plan calls for no significant additions to the city bureaucracy, and Glendale would continue to operate without bond indebtedness.

The Planning Department would add two employees to its environmental review program and two more to the General Plan update program. The number of police officers added will be determined in upcoming weeks by a task force headed by Assistant City Manager Bob McFall, who is evaluating police needs.

The city would also add a handful of employees in other departments, but that number will be nowhere close to this year’s increase, Butler said.

A number of projects were scrapped from the five-year capital improvement plan after it was determined their combined cost would exceed the $100 million in expected revenues by $25 million.

Among the projects postponed indefinitely were the relocation of Fire Station No. 26, the construction of a police helicopter hangar, the installation of video cameras in City Council chambers and the construction of a landscaped median on Foothill Boulevard.

Nearly $19 million for such projects as the expansion of Brand Library, street resurfacing programs, traffic lights and a public art program will not be affected by the proposed budget.

To increase revenues, the council will consider additional fees on developers in high-density zones, an increase in guest taxes at hotels and motels and an increase in dumping fees for cities that use Glendale’s Scholl Canyon Landfill, officials said.

But council members emphatically opposed the possibility of raising or imposing new licensing fees and other business taxes. “The businesses are what make Glendale successful,” Zarian said.

Electricity rates will not go up, but water rates will rise by 7% and refuse rates by 5% to keep up with inflation, according to the preliminary budget. Sewer rates would double to pay for Glendale’s share of capital improvement costs for the Hyperion plant in Santa Monica, which receives the city’s treated sewage before it is discharged into the bay. After next year, Butler said, sewage-rate increases will return to single-digit, inflation adjustment levels.

The city departed from its customary austerity last year to meet demands from a rapidly growing population. City Manager David Ramsay’s budget for 1989-90 was 12% higher than the previous year’s. The $243 million spending package added 64 new employees, created several new departments and programs, and for the first time in at least 10 years, it showed a small deficit.

Although the deficit of less than $1 million for a city with ample reserves was considered negligible by Finance Director Brian Butler, it was the first time in years Glendale did not increase the amount in its investment portfolio made up with the city’s reserves. “We hope we don’t start a trend,” Butler said.