State Cuts Passed Along in Oxnard Budget Plan : Finances: Council tentatively endorses eliminating pay raises for city employees and a reduction in public services.

In an effort to absorb cuts handed down by state lawmakers, the Oxnard City Council on Tuesday tentatively endorsed a budget that will eliminate pay raises for city employees and reduce public services citywide.

Oxnard officials were forced to cut $1.2 million from the $62-million General Fund budget and $600,000 from the redevelopment agency budget after the state budget package, approved by legislators earlier this month, withheld some taxes and fees that would otherwise be funneled into city coffers.

To make up for cuts to the General Fund, the council agreed to draw $500,000 from an account earmarked for cost-of-living increases for city workers in fiscal year 1992-93. The council already had drawn $700,000 from that account over the summer to make up for part of an anticipated $5-million shortfall.

It was unknown how many of the city’s 950 employees will be affected by the decision.

Council members Dorothy Maron and Manuel Lopez opposed the depletion of the fund.

“We’re curing the budget problems with salaries,” Maron said. “I don’t think that employees should have to take the whole hit.”

But with the city still reeling from a painful round of summer budget reductions, City Manager Vern Hazen said the council had few choices.

“We are cutting into the muscle and bone of the organization,” he told council members. “These aren’t scare tactics at all. We’re at the point where the next time we may be talking about salary reductions and layoffs.”

The city is hoping for some relief through legislation currently before Gov. Pete Wilson that would eliminate Oxnard’s mandatory participation in a street maintenance program, saving the city $500,000 a year over the next three years.

If the governor does not sign the legislation, city officials will be forced to make $1.3 million in additional cuts to municipal services. If he does sign it, that figure would be reduced to $800,000.

City staff members were directed to return to the council next month with potential cost-cutting measures, including reductions in public services.

The council’s $5 million worth of cuts over the summer included a $462,000 reduction to the Police Department budget. But the council at that time stopped short of approving a proposal to freeze three vacant officer positions, deciding instead to allow Chief Harold Hurtt to determine how badly those cuts would hurt service.

Hurtt returned to the council on Tuesday with a plan to reduce police spending by $634,000, saving the officer positions but losing two administrative positions.

Council members whittled away at that proposal, saving the two administrative positions and agreeing to hire another police officer in addition to filling the three vacant positions.

The department will lose two animal-control officers, a police supervisor and a student trainee. In addition, the city will freeze some clerical positions.

Hurtt also laid out a three-year budget plan calling for the addition of 33 department employees, mostly officers and detectives, at a cost of $3 million.

The chief told council members that while Oxnard has experienced a 130% increase in violent crime since 1985, it has the same number of officers--148--as it did seven years ago. The city has the highest crime rate in Ventura County.

The Oxnard Police Department has fewer officers than any other similarly sized city in the nation, Hurtt said.

“I think the most critical problem our department is facing is staffing of patrol and the detectives’ division,” Hurtt told the council.

Councilman Michael Plisky responded with a proposal to finance Hurtt’s three-year budget plan by setting aside sales tax revenue generated by recently approved development projects.

“We should start earmarking our new dollars . . . to this police budget,” Plisky said. “If we don’t have a strong Police Department, we don’t have anything.”

Council members did not approve Plisky’s request but agreed to work toward achieving those goals.