OXNARD : City Faces Possible $1.4-Million Deficit

Even if Oxnard freezes all of its programs and services at current levels, the city will run up a deficit of $1.4 million over the next six years unless the recession eases, according to a new economic study.

The six-year forecast also presents a gloomy evaluation of the present year, showing significant revenue decreases in hotel, property and deed taxes, as well as in retail sales, fines and state funding.

Barring an economic recovery, the City Council will have to postpone plans to increase funds for the Police Department and tourism promotion, according to the forecast done by city management analyst Dennis Scala.

“We’re going to have to be austere for quite some time,” Mayor Pro Tem Gerry Furr said. “We’ve tightened our belts before and we’ll do it again if we have to.”

In May, the council earmarked $5.2 million in spending cuts in the next two years, out of an expected budget outlay of $120 million for that period, to balance the budget for the first time in five years. City officials have said they are prepared to make more budget cuts if necessary.

But a recent study commissioned by the city from Carroll Brubaker & Associates Inc., shows that the Police Department is understaffed. It recommends that the city add 27 officers immediately and lift a hiring freeze in the department, at a cost of $13.7 million over the next six years.

“We certainly cannot afford 27 new positions next year,” Furr said. “We are not going to risk bankrupting the city.”

The six-year forecast also says that the city could spend an average of $60,000 a year between 1992 and 1996 to resurrect its tourism industry, long considered a key to Oxnard’s economic future.

Hotel tax contributions--an industry barometer--had been rising by an average of 16.8% from 1985 to 1989, but they dropped by more than 7% last year after the city cut off funding of the Oxnard Visitors and Conventions Bureau.