LAGUNA BEACH : City May Cut 15 Jobs to Balance Budget

In a bleak assessment of the budget woes Laguna Beach must face in coming months, City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said 15 city employees will probably lose their jobs in the next fiscal year unless the city revises its spending plans and raises taxes.

To avert the layoffs, the city would have to use money currently pledged to buy open space and to build a downtown parking garage, Frank said. It would also have to raise taxes on utilities, cable television and telephone use, he said.

The grim projection, which Deputy City Manager Rob Clark delivered to the council during its first budget workshop on Saturday, is the result of an estimated $1.7-million annual shortfall the city is facing because of cutbacks in state funding.

Layoffs could be especially painful for the city’s police and fire departments, where 50% of the city’s discretionary money is spent, Frank said Monday. The cutbacks could also affect lifeguards and the city’s planning, parks, recreation and streets divisions.

“That’s where the cuts will be made because that’s where the people are,” Frank said.

As an alternative, the city could use $900,000 from parking meter collections earmarked for open space acquisition and a new parking structure. Some of that money is expected to be used to buy land in Laguna Canyon, which the city intends to preserve as open space.

This is not the city’s first brush with unsettling budget news. During the current fiscal year, state cutbacks usurped 9% of the city’s property taxes, or $711,000.

As a result, the city lifted the cap on business license taxes, hiked building and conditional use permit fees and boosted animal license and animal shelter fees. Also, on July 1, the city’s hotel bed tax will rise from 8% to 10% and non-residents will have to pay $300 for paramedic service.