Quake, Stabbing Spur New Funding : Simi Valley: City braces for future emergencies by updating computer systems, shoring up police services. Officials say they are in good position to cover $800,000 cost.

Still recovering from the double shock of the earthquake and the recent stabbing of a junior high school student, Simi Valley officials are bracing for future emergencies by modernizing the city’s computer systems and beefing up police services.

Citing lower-than-expected spending and slightly higher revenue for the first half of the fiscal year, city officials said they are in a good financial position to spend the more than $800,000 the programs are expected to cost.

From July to December, the city spent about $13 million from its general fund, about 8.5% less than budgeted. The fund took in $9.5 million, about 0.7% more than anticipated.

“Overall, we’re in pretty good shape,” Deputy City Manager Laura Herron said. “There were no big surprises.”

The surprises came later, with the Jan. 17 earthquake that toppled buildings and ruptured water lines, followed by the Feb. 1 fatal stabbing of a Valley View Junior High School student.

Under the city’s midyear spending plan recently approved by the City Council, Simi Valley will pay $400,000 to install a computer database that would map streets, buildings, and sewer and water systems throughout the city in minute detail. The system will allow the city to pinpoint leaks and other problems, and react quickly.

An additional $250,000 will be spent to upgrade the city’s existing computer systems. The money will come from the general fund and from the sanitation and waterworks districts, which will directly benefit from the expanded system.

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Plans to improve the computer systems have been under way for several months, but the earthquake gave City Council members an extra incentive to approve the spending.

“We’ve been trying to get this kind of computer system for years, and the earthquake gave us the jolt we needed to finally go ahead with it,” Mayor Greg Stratton said. “We’re in pretty good shape financially, so it seems like a good time to do it.”

Despite the city’s financial health, the council decided to delay $1.2 million in road repaving until the summer, after the start of the next fiscal year.

“The street work must be done, but it’s less of a priority right now, and most contractors are busy with earthquake projects anyway,” Councilwoman Judy Mikels said. “The earthquake has made us realize that the computer improvements are not a luxury, but a necessity that we need to address.”

The mapping program, called the Geographic Information System, will compile data from hundreds of aging paper maps onto one computer system, allowing the city to coordinate planning and locate trouble spots more quickly.

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The council also agreed to pay $79,000 for the salaries of temporary employees who are providing earthquake-related services, such as building inspections and construction plan reviews. The city is hoping to be reimbursed for those costs by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The city will also spend $109,000 to improve Police Department services.

Of that amount, about $13,000 will be spent on backup emergency radio equipment. The city’s emergency radio service, which operates at AM 530 as part of the Travellers Information Radio System, was knocked out for two weeks by the quake.

Another $33,000 will pay the salaries two additional police dispatchers for four months. And $63,000 will pay for a second full-time officer to patrol all the city’s public schools in the wake of the fatal stabbing.

The two new dispatchers--whose positions may be made permanent by the City Council when it adopts its budget for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1--will bring the total hired by the department to 13, about average for a city of 102,000 residents, according to a study conducted by the Police Department.