NEWPORT BEACH : Fiscal 1992 Budget Discussions Continue

The City Council this week continued discussions on the city’s estimated $90-million budget for fiscal 1992 and voted on a handful of specific items.

Among the actions the council took were agreeing to keep the senior center’s bus driver and the city’s arts coordinator on the payroll while rejecting requests from the Fire Department for a $25,000 four-wheel-drive truck and a $10,000 video projector for use in educational campaigns.

In all, the city’s budget is not rife with the layoffs or service cuts that are plaguing many other cities in the county. But Newport Beach officials are not convinced that the city will be able to continue to avoid the effects of the poor economy and are bracing for cuts later this summer.

“This will be a challenge,” City Manager Kevin J. Murphy told the council Tuesday.

Murphy said cuts in coming months are “looming clouds” and that he has begun a secondary budget plan calling for each department to draw up scenarios where they could cut 2.5% to 5% more from their budgets if necessary.

At a meeting two weeks ago, council members were not convinced that the city’s budget outlook was as rosy as it seemed and instructed Murphy to develop alternative budgets that could reflect further cuts.