SEAL BEACH : Police Reserves OKd in a ‘Lean’ Budget

The City Council has unanimously approved a lean 1992-93 budget that will help reinstate the police reserves and allow the city’s computer system to be upgraded while still making substantial cuts in overall spending.

The new fiscal plan, approved by the council on Monday, projects across-the-board spending cuts.

It also reflects a three-year decline in spending by the city. Seal Beach spent almost $13 million in 1990-’91, $10.9 million during the current fiscal year and is projected to spend $10.6 million in the new fiscal year.

Officials attribute much of the belt-tightening to a 15% reduction in the city’s work force that is the result of a hiring freeze put into effect last year.

Revenue is also expected to decline. Documents show that general fund revenue will drop from the $12.7 million during the current fiscal year to $11.7 next year. Property taxes, the biggest revenue source, are expected to increase just 3.5%, the smallest rise in several years, officials said.

Despite spending reductions, the 1992-93 spending plan puts Seal Beach in a more favorable financial light by reversing the $1.4-million deficit officials masked this fiscal year by shuffling funds between accounts. The new budget, which will go into effect July 1, projects an ending balance for next fiscal year of $45,970.

City Manager Jerry L. Bankston, who presented the bulky document to the council, warned that the city will have to revisit the budget after the state adopts its fiscal plan. Bankston said the city could lose more than $800,000 in property taxes alone if the state Legislature imposes tough cuts in municipal funding now being considered in Sacramento.

Seal Beach is already getting $300,000 less than expected from the state during the current fiscal year, he added.

The Police Department will lose $118,000 in its overall spending next fiscal year, but officials hope to offset the loss by reinstating the reserve force disbanded in 1987. The 1992-’93 budget sets aside $28,500 for special police department expenditures and officials said part of that amount will go toward reviving the reserve force.

“No one on this council was aboard when we lost the reserves and it is about time we got them back,” Councilman Frank Laszlo said.

Officials are not clear how long or how much it will take to get the reserve force back into operation.

The new budget does not provide funding for a Leisure World transportation service that shuttled residents to and from the Rossmoor Business Center. The move saves the city about $27,000, documents show.

Even with spending reductions, the city is expected to buy an upgraded computer system during the coming fiscal year. The upgrade will cost about $100,000, but Bankston said the purchase will save thousands of dollars in the long term by reducing staff working hours. The current computer system cannot handle the needs of the city and has forced officials to do much of the budget-related work by hand, he said.