Budget Plan Cuts $2 Million; City Services Will Suffer

West Hollywood officials on Monday unveiled a $36.9-million municipal budget for 1992-93 that includes recession-induced cuts in almost every department, but still may not cover additional losses in state funding or the new costs of contracts being negotiated with the city’s employee unions.

For the first time, proposed spending is lower than the year before--by nearly $2 million.

Although the budget includes significant cost-saving measures, big-ticket items drew less attention during a public hearing Monday than did suggested cutbacks in relatively cheap recreational programs. Nearly two dozen residents--some dressed in tennis togs--urged City Council members and officials to avoid charging fees for tennis at city parks, closing the library on Sundays or trimming wintertime pool hours.

“Charity begins at home,” said Budd Kops, a city activist. He said that local recreational programs should take precedence over funding for social service agencies that also serve out-of-towners.

But there may be little choice. A series of financial shocks--from the lingering recession to an expected loss of about $2 million in state funding based on new city population data--have created the harshest fiscal conditions that West Hollywood has faced since incorporation in 1984.

“These are extremely unstable times for the state of California,” said City Manager Paul Brotzman. Facing a possible deficit, the council already made about $900,000 in midyear budget cuts this spring and delayed about $3.6 million in capital projects.

Council members, who might take action on the new budget as early as June 1, listened and said little during the budget session. The new budget would go into effect July 1.

A bleak outlook is reflected in proposed cutbacks throughout city services. Even the $6.7-million human services budget, which has been spared during previous cutbacks, faces a proposed 5% reduction. A slight cut is proposed for the $2.1 million in contracts with a network of outside agencies that provide many city-sponsored social services, from legal assistance to AIDS care.

Besides cutbacks in staffing and outside contracts, the city also may switch from a self-funded employee-insurance program to a more conventional system and place parking enforcement in the hands of a private firm, rather than with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which also acts as the city’s police department. Those two moves could save up to $600,000, according to budget figures.

A residents group is gathering signatures for a ballot initiative calling for an independent police department, saying the change would provide better local control over law enforcement at a price no higher than the current $9-million sheriff’s contract. But Brotzman said Monday that such a move might cost up to one-third more than the current arrangement.

The proposed budget contains $33.4 million for operating expenses and another $3.5 million for capital projects, such as sewer and street improvements. Plans to spend about $1 million to build new parking facilities would eat into a reserve parking fund.

The budget sets aside about $315,000 for unplanned expenses, such as covering further losses in state aid, but negotiations are under way with the city’s three municipal unions and no money has been earmarked for raises yet. Each percentage point raise for the cost of living would cost the city about $85,000, Brotzman said.

The crunch is made worse by an expected loss this year of about $2 million in state funding allocated according to local population. Since incorporation, West Hollywood’s population had been estimated based on registered voters, but the resulting figure proved to be almost twice as high as the actual population of 36,000, according to the 1990 Census. Brotzman warned that efforts to cut the state deficit may mean even more reductions in local aid.