SEAL BEACH : Recreation Programs Pared From Budget

After-school and summer recreation programs are some of the casualties of a pared-down but balanced city budget that officials have adopted.

The mid-fiscal-year revision, approved unanimously by the City Council on Monday, chops more than $25,000 from recreational programs. This means that the city will not hire part-time workers who usually run drop-in activities such as after-school and summer programs, said Jack Osteen, director of parks and recreation.

“The only thing we will be able to offer are those programs that are self-supported,” Osteen said.

Overall, the revised budget reflects city expenditures that have been cut to levels near those of the 1990-91 fiscal year, with some items as low as in 1989-90, City Manager Jerry L. Bankston said.

Lifeguard services will also take a steep cut, dropping from an original projection of $477,050 to $410,548, documents show. However, the spending cut will not mean fewer lifeguards on the city’s beaches this summer.

Bankston said the spending decrease results primarily from the retirement of one of the city’s three year-round lifeguards, whose administrative position has not been filled. A hiring freeze was instituted last fiscal year.

In the service areas, the city will spend $22,250 less for building maintenance; $12,250 less for maintenance of city-owned vehicles; $3,300 less for landscaping and $3,820 less for beach maintenance than originally budgeted earlier in the fiscal year.

The city attorney is one of the few administrators not subject to a spending cut, the revised budget shows. Instead, the office was granted a spending increase of about $55,000. Bankston said the increase will cover the city’s rising litigation costs.