NEWPORT BEACH : Council Gets Look at Proposed Budget

The City Council this week got a peek at a proposed 1993-94 city budget that includes elimination of 48 municipal positions, including 11 in the Police Department and about a dozen part-time summer jobs.

In the last several months, directors in each of the municipal departments have been working to eliminate an anticipated $6-million shortfall in the next fiscal year’s budget. They are planning to eliminate positions and raise various taxes and fees in such a way that residents will hardly notice the decrease in staffing.

Despite the anticipated reductions in the police force, no patrol officers would be taken from the streets. The oceanfront lifeguard program would remain untouched. And of the 48 jobs to be eliminated citywide, only about 10 full-time municipal employees would be laid off, City Manager Kevin J. Murphy told the City Council on Monday afternoon. The rest of the jobs would be eliminated through attrition and early retirement.

The City Council must approve the budget before any staff reductions become final.

The proposed losses in the 215-member Police Department include a sergeant who works in the chief’s office, a captain and a community service officer in the traffic division, an officer who serves arrest warrants, an officer in personnel and training, and three detectives who investigate fraud, crime scenes and crimes against persons.

“We had to cut a significant amount of money,” acting Police Chief Jim Jacobs said. “The effects will be a reduction of hours at the front desk . . . and probably a reduction of follow-up service on less serious crimes. Other than that, I really don’t think . . . the public will notice.”

Most of those police positions are already vacant or soon will be because of retirements.

The Fire Department will probably lose a battalion chief and a deputy fire marshal to retirement, said Dennis Danner, finance director, who has been instrumental in formulating the proposed budget.

To help balance the $59-million budget proposal and minimize layoffs, officials have taken into account several fee increases, some of which the City Council has not yet approved.

A proposed increase in the business license tax would generate an estimated $1 million during the 1993-94 fiscal year, if passed by the City Council. A proposed hotel bed tax could raise another $625,000, and parking ticket increases could account for $250,000.

The council has scheduled four budget meetings this month to be held in the council chambers at City Hall. The first will occur next Wednesday, with others on May 10, 12 and 24.