Oxnard Budget Plan Avoids Cuts, Layoffs

For the first time this decade, Oxnard leaders have unveiled a proposed budget for the coming fiscal year that would not require layoffs or tough cuts in city programs to avoid a deficit.

Instead, the recommended $59.4-million budget released Wednesday promises to maintain--and even improve--current city services without raising taxes.

“This will be the first time in a while that our revenue sources will not be down from the past year,” Councilman Tom Holden said.

“It’s exciting, because it shows that our restructuring and re-engineering proposals to change the way we do business without sacrificing the quality of our services have really worked,” he said.

Oxnard’s proposed 1995-96 spending plan is $2.1 million less than last year’s budget of $61.5 million.

But City Manager Tom Frutchey said the city’s ongoing bureaucratic transformation--a replacement of all city departments with a series of more than 100 independently managed programs--will allow Oxnard employees to provide better services to taxpayers at a lower cost.

“This is about taking the shackles off and getting out of the way,” Frutchey said. “The employees have always had the responsibility. They just haven’t had the power to get things done.”

Under the proposed budget, about $28.4 million, or 48%, would go toward fire, police and other public safety programs, which have been designated a top priority by the council.

Of the remaining funds, about 14% would be allocated for residents’ services, 10% for administration, 9% for infrastructure and utilities, 9% for non-departmental costs, 6% for community development and 3% for capital improvements.

In recent years, Oxnard has struggled with burdensome deficits, resulting in cuts to city libraries, parks and dozens of other programs. And since 1990, the city has had to pare down its work force from 1,100 in 1990 to 914 this year.

Only the city’s Police Department, which was considered by the City Council to be greatly understaffed, has grown during that time, increasing by 14% in the past five years to 245 employees, Frutchey said.

“I’m loving it,” Frutchey said of Oxnard’s current fiscal situation. “I hope the pride in what people are doing comes through in [the budget], because people are working very hard to make the best of what we have.”

But Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez said the City Council should not get overly optimistic over the status of city services. He said he doubts city employees would be able to significantly improve their performance without more funding.

“I’ve been around long enough to know that despite the things that you hear, we do not provide the same services we provided 15 years ago,” Lopez said. “If you keep cutting like we did, there is just no way.”

Lopez, who has been through 17 Oxnard budget sessions, said the past five years were easily the most difficult, due to the slumping economy and state cuts to municipalities.

“I hope they don’t have any changes or any surprises,” Lopez said, referring to state leaders. “But right now, it looks like we’re being left alone.”

Councilman Dean Maulhardt said Oxnard will be able to balance its budget without raising taxes due in large part to previous City Councils and the tough cuts and layoffs they made.

“One of my goals is to provide a balanced budget and I think we’ll be able to do that,” Maulhardt said. “I’ll give credit to the previous council. They put us in a workable situation.”

Now that Oxnard is back to a more reasonable budget situation, Holden said he and other council members need to consider problems other councils could not confront, such as the city’s many weathered roads and sidewalks.

“Oxnard is an old enough city that if we continue to neglect the older areas we’re going to have some problems,” Holden said. “This gives us an opportunity to seriously begin to address these cosmetic improvements that need to be made.”

The budget recommends that six vacant city positions be eliminated, but does not suggest any layoffs. And it does not include any across-the-board changes in employee salaries, Frutchey said.