Financially Buffeted Lawndale OKs a Bare-Bones $7.5-Million Budget

After weeks of debate and nearly 2 1/2 months after its last budget expired, the Lawndale City Council finally agreed Monday night on a painfully lean, $7.5-million budget that sets aside virtually no general fund money to add to reserves.

The council had been overspending at a rate of about $50,000 a month for the last several months before unanimously adopting the 1990-1991 budget, which is about $300,000 smaller than last year’s budget.

“We are in a very weak financial position,” said City Manager Charles Thompson, who predicted that the no-frills budget will have to be revised several times over the next year. The budget “is trimmed to the point where it is even questionable whether we can operate on the amounts we have budgeted,” he said.

Thompson said he was considering several measures, including reorganizing responsibilities at City Hall and trimming services to build up the city’s accumulated reserves, which are now about $100,000. “Prudent operation says you’d like to carry 10% (of general fund revenues), or about $500,000 for us, in reserves, but that’s just not possible for us right now,” he said.

With recent crime figures showing sharp increases in robberies and assaults, council members were reluctant to cut back on police services; it was an issue that became a major sticking point in the city’s budget debates. The Sheriff’s Department recorded 146 robberies during the year ending June 30, a 26% rise over the previous year’s figure of 116. Assaults during the same period rose from 252 to 333, a 32% increase.

In a move designed to save the city about $125,000 this fiscal year without cutting significantly into police protection, the council agreed to staff two-officer cars with only one officer but add another patrolling deputy for a six-month trial period.

The budget allows for a 2.5% raise for city employees, although negotiations with the city’s two unions are still in progress. The council decided to leave open a full-time vacancy in the Community Safety Department and to stop funding two part-time positions in the Recreation Department.

Although the council had previously scuttled a proposal to raise the 7% transient occupancy tax charged by hotels and motels, council members decided Monday to gradually raise the tax to 9% by January, 1992.

The city put almost all its capital projects on hold, but the council authorized street improvements by using some of the interest it earns on the $10 million it received from the sale of its portion of the Galleria at South Bay, Finance Director Judith Longman said.

An innovative program that provided free counseling services to Lawndale residents at a cost to the city of about $15,000 a year was cut from the budget, but if finances allow, it may be reinstated later this year, Longman said.

A slowdown in the construction business that led to the issuing of fewer building permits this year was a major factor in the city’s financial woes, Thompson said. Building fees and permits, which accounted for $356,000 in revenues in last year’s budget, are expected to bring in about $80,000 less this fiscal year. To offset some of that loss, the council agreed last month to increase some of the building fees charged to developers.

The city also suffered from a cutback in a state program that gives additional funds to cities that receive little or no property tax revenue. City officials had expected to receive $163,000 from the program this year but were told last month that they could count on only about $72,000.