Camarillo Rebounds From Its 1987 Financial Problems

Camarillo officials this week unveiled a $22.6-million spending plan for 1990-91 that includes more money for a planned police station, improvements to City Hall and long-delayed work on city streets.

The budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is 18% larger than last year’s $19-million plan as a result of the growing city’s increasing tax base and projected increases in fees for water use and garbage collection.

If the budget is passed as it stands, the average homeowner would pay an extra $2.40 per month for trash pickup and would be required to reduce water consumption by 10% to keep from paying more for water.

The proposed budget includes a projection of $11 million in reserves, which would mean that the city is in the best financial position it has been in since 1987, when speculative investments wiped out a $25-million reserve, City Manager J. William Little said.

After that fiscal disaster, the 1988-89 budget was “pinched to the bone,” Little said. When this year’s budget was passed, the feeling was “well, maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

“Sure enough, I think there was light,” Little said Wednesday. The City Council will review and revise the proposed budget at a public study session beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday at City Hall.

The budget projects a $3-million increase in spending on capital improvements, much of it going for 22 street-improvement projects. Those projects include $1.3 million in general repairs, $500,000 for engineering studies for the Mission Oaks bridge over Calleguas Creek and $276,000 to widen Las Posas Road near West Loop Road.

The city also plans to spend $400,000 on architectural designs for a new building to house Ventura County sheriff’s deputies assigned to the Camarillo substation.

An additional $162,000 is set aside to add 2,000 square feet of City Hall office space, Little said.

About $100,000 will add parking spaces next to City Hall.

Most of the $2.40 monthly garbage fee increase, from $13.10 to $15.50, became necessary when the cost to commercial haulers dumping trash at the Bailard Landfill in Oxnard increased this month, Little said.

Seventy-two cents was added to cover the cost of developing a citywide recycling program.

The budget also proposes changing the city’s water billing system to a tiered structure that penalizes customers who use more water.

The cost is now 70 cents per cubic foot. Beginning in October, the price would be 70 cents per cubic foot for about the first 52 cubic feet. Water bills would remain the same for those who curtail their usage by 10%.