GARDEN GROVE : Mayor Predicts Tight Finances

Mayor Frank Kessler said Friday that the financially strapped city is likely to face even tougher times in the next fiscal year, warning that the state plans to take more city revenue to balance its budget.

Speaking before an audience of about 160 at the annual state of the city luncheon, Kessler said Garden Grove hopes to ease some of the revenue loss by consolidating services with other cities.

Kessler also said redevelopment has come “to a screeching halt” but should move ahead again, thanks to a redevelopment plan that was amended last year to include more portions of the city.

Kessler also asked residents to help shape a new General Plan, the blueprint for city growth that hasn’t been updated since 1974.

A community forum is scheduled Feb. 3 to begin the process.

The outdated General Plan, Kessler said, failed to keep up with changing times and is a factor in the city’s losing a major car dealership to neighboring Santa Ana.

After his speech at the Hyatt Regency Alicante Hotel in Anaheim, Kessler blamed council predecessors for “burying their heads in the sand” and failing to update the plan years earlier.

To get things rolling, the council last year approved a $500,000 contract with a consultant to help prepare a new plan.

Kessler, a former Garden Grove police chief, was applauded when he disclosed police efforts against graffiti.

Kessler said police have arrested 30 suspects in the last 45 days. He said the courts now are ordering convicted vandals to perform up to 32 hours of community service to paint over graffiti. Parents of juvenile offenders face fines of $250 to help pay for costs of removing graffiti, he said.

But the arrests have done little to put a dent into the graffiti “epidemic,” he said. Police have worked with 45 community organizations in recent months to cope with the problem.

“But we need your help,” he said. “You’re our eyes and ears. By decentralizing our efforts to include each of you, we have a much better chance of licking this.”

Some other Kessler comments:

* Last year, the state Legislature took $600,000 from Garden Grove’s property tax revenues. This year, according to summary copies of Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed 1993-94 budget, the state stands to take $2.1 million, and possibly more.

The city’s property tax total of $8 million is insufficient to pay for police costs alone, Kessler said.

* Last year, the state took $2 million from the city’s redevelopment funds. This year, the loss could be $2 million or more, he said.

* Disneyland and the city of Anaheim should mitigate costs that the proposed Disneyland expansion is expected to have on Garden Grove. “We want to participate in the expansion,” Kessler said. “We want to support their efforts. But we also want and expect the mitigating factors that are going to affect the city of Garden Grove to be handled by both Disneyland and the city of Anaheim.”

* Local officials are considering taking over the two sanitation districts that serve Garden Grove “if it means keeping the state from getting all their resources.”

* The city eliminated 53 full- and part-time positions last year because of budget deficits.