Anaheim Budget Plan Calls for 22 More Officers : Finances: 16 positions from other departments would be cut and $3.5 million would be drawn from reserves.

Showing that public safety concerns are a priority, the city would hire 22 new police officers but cut 16 positions from other departments under a proposed budget plan released Tuesday.

The addition of the officers was one of the few bright spots in an austere $137-million general fund budget proposal that dips into the city’s reserves and imposes a utility “right-of-way” fee against the city-owned Public Utility Department to cover a nearly $9-million deficit. The department is fiscally independent of the city.

“Candidly, I think this is as tight a budget as you can possibly get,” City Manager James D. Ruth said during a press briefing on the plan. “This has been a very difficult process.”

Ruth said the city, which relies heavily on tourism-related revenues, has been severely hurt by the state’s recession. Sales, hotel and property taxes have all declined or remained flat over the past several years, forcing the city to make drastic cuts in the work-force and nonessential services.

In the past four years, the city has slashed its 2,000-employee work force by about 200 positions and reduced the general fund budget by about $34 million.

Part of the city’s budget problem has been attributed to the state’s siphoning a portion of property tax and cigarette tax revenue that had traditionally gone to cities. The proposed Anaheim budget assumes that the state, which began the practice two years ago, will not dig deeper into the city’s revenue sources.

The proposed 1994-1995 budget is about $578 million, but the discretionary general fund is $136,914,962, about 1% more than the current general fund budget. That increase, however, is largely due to additional public safety-related costs. Police and fire services alone make up about 58% of the general fund budget.

To balance the proposed budget, Ruth said he reluctantly drew about $3.5 million from the city’s $13-million cash reserves.

“It’s not something we like to do,” he said. But city officials said they hope the economy will continue to move out of the recession and this will be the last time they will have to dip into those funds.

The city is also imposing a right-of-way fee against its own utility department to raise about $3.8 million. Of that amount, about $2 million will be earmarked for the 22 new officers, which will boost the number of sworn officers to 375.

The fee would not raise electricity rates for at least three years because the utility department, which supplies Anaheim with electricity and water, has been running a multimillion-dollar surplus. Water rates, however, might increase slightly, city officials said.

Other Orange County cities charge their electricity supplier, Southern California Edison, a similar fee, Ruth said.

City officials said there may be other small fee increases in convention center parking rates and for services such as using the city-owned gymnasiums and fields. A 5% increase in solid waste collection, which is about 60 cents per resident, is also proposed. Park officials said they will be forced to cut back on watering the grass in parks, resulting in poor quality turf and also to trim palm trees less frequently, causing a possible increase in liability from falling fronds.

City officials said they hope to achieve the reduction in 16 positions through retirements and attrition, but may have to resort to layoffs.

Under the proposed budget, four positions are being cut from the library department, three from parks, two from human resources, one from data processing and eight from public utilities. Of the positions, six are management jobs. The Fire Department recently approved hiring 18 dispatchers, but those positions will be funded through service contracts with other cities.

Ruth said budget was balanced in a way that would minimize reduction of so-called “nonessential” city services, such libraries and parks programs. The City Council will conduct public hearings on the budget on June 7 and June 14 before it is adopted.