TORRANCE : $94.7-Million Budget Boosts Fees, Trims Jobs

Renting movies at the library, being fingerprinted at the police station and getting a permit for a satellite dish will cost residents more under Torrance’s $94.7-million budget for fiscal 1994-95, which was approved at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Through fee increases, use of one-time funds, reducing supplies for city departments and deleting 44 vacant positions, the city balanced a budget that at one time had a projected deficit of $5.3 million.

City officials had said earlier that the large deficit made layoffs a possibility, but members of the council opposed staff cuts. Instead, through attrition and redeployment of several employees, no layoffs were necessary.

Because of special funding sources, a few employees were added to public safety departments in response to public concern about safety. Four police officers and three firefighters will be added.

The money for the new positions comes from the half-cent sales tax made permanent under Proposition 172, a statewide ballot measure passed by voters in 1993.

In conjunction with the new budget, the council amended the city law setting the utility users tax. A claim of exemption by Mobil Oil prompted clarification of the code, City Atty. John Fellows said. Mobil sued the city earlier this year over the tax dispute.

The council increased certain city fees. If police officers cited a resident for a loud party, for example, the old fee was $97, or 50% of estimated cost to the city. Now the fee for a loud party will be $195, or 100% of the estimated cost.

Recovering the cost for fingerprinting by the Torrance Police Department increases the fee from $5 to $10.

At the library, video rentals used to be $1 for three days, but the new budget sets the fee at $1 per day. That fee might increase again as the city juggles library hours and services and the amount budgeted for that department.

For some health, safety and regulatory fees, the city will recover 30% of its costs. Satellite dish fees fall under this category. Although the city used to collect $109 for each dish, or 17.9% of the cost, it now will collect $182, or 30%.