Thousand Oaks Budget Plan Would Beef Up Police Force : Finance: City Council will vote tonight on a two-year proposal, outlining spending to mid-1995.

The city of Thousand Oaks would gain five new police positions under its contract with the county as part of a $62.3-million operating budget the City Council will vote on tonight.

Despite recessionary times that have left many local cities in tight financial straits, the balanced budget also sports a $2-million reserve fund left over from the 1992-93 fiscal year.

“It’s our 30th year of a balanced budget, and that speaks well for the city,” said Councilman Alex Fiore. “And anytime you can end the year with a surplus, that’s awfully good.”

By contrast, the Simi Valley City Council postponed almost $400,000 in public works projects in June to pass what one staffer called a “bare-bones budget.”

The city of Ventura eliminated 70 jobs, instituted a hiring freeze, and cut costs in every department to balance its $44-million operating budget this year.

Thousand Oaks officials attributed their more comfortable situation to a stable sales-tax revenue base and wise fiscal planning.

“Because of a combination of layoffs two years ago, (job) freezes and other belt-tightening activities, we’ve been able to keep services at a reasonable level,” said Grant Brimhall, the city manager.

The budget for the 1993-94 fiscal year does not reduce city services, but neither does it add many.

The major exception is police staffing provided by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department under contract with the city.

City staff have recommended adding another seven-day-a-week patrol car to the city’s fleet as well as hiring three police cadets and a clerk to speed up the department’s response time to non-emergency calls. Two other existing positions will be reclassified to include crime-prevention analysis work, which helps the department track crime trends in the city and surrounding areas.

“We have become lean and mean to meet the growth of the city,” said Lt. Larry Reynolds of the Sheriff’s Department. “But it’s not uncommon for people to have to wait up to four hours on non-emergency calls.”

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The cost to the city would be $156,000 from January to June, 1994, and then $300,000 for the 1994-95 fiscal year. It would be the first time in five years that the city has added to the police force, sheriff’s deputies said.

Fiore said the beefing-up of the police force was warranted. “As long as the Sheriff’s Department thinks it’s needed, I’m all for it,” he said.

The budget the council will vote on today is actually a two-year plan, outlining spending all the way to July, 1995.

“This gives the council an opportunity to think more than 12 months ahead,” Brimhall said. The 317-page document, however, does not lock council members into rigid decisions, he said.

“The council amends the budget on a regular basis, depending on city needs,” he said. “It’s a living document.”

The proposed 1993-94 budget shows $4.1 million lower revenue than the previous year, and $3.17 million less than the $64.4-million budget proposed for the 1994-95 fiscal year.

Brimhall attributed at least $500,000 of this year’s revenue loss to property-tax money the state took from the city to meet voter-mandated school allocations.

The city has also lost money in building-permit, plan-check, and property-inspection fees--all victims of a recession-wracked construction industry--and in vehicle-licensing revenues, which have also dipped as drivers hold off on buying more expensive cars or move out of state, he said.

The city projects a larger budget in 1994-95 because the state projects an upturn for the beleaguered economy around the same time, Brimhall said.

The proposed budget has landed on the council members’ desks four months late--from July 1 until the new budget is adopted, the city runs on an interim budget that continues the spending patterns of the previous fiscal year, Brimhall said.

City officials spent the intervening weeks warily awaiting the budget news from Sacramento. “The state can have such a profound impact on us--it can kill us--and so we waited to see what the state was going to do,” Brimhall said.