PORT HUENEME : 2 Police Officers to Be Added in New Budget

Port Hueneme will hire two new police officers and three clerical workers thanks to a nearly 5% increase in the 1995-96 budget approved by the City Council.

What a difference a year makes. When Port Hueneme passed its two-year budget last year, the cash-strapped city was considering dissolving its police force and contracting with Ventura County or Oxnard for police protection.

But city officials decided to revise the budget this year to include more than $300,000 generated by past savings and a 4% utility tax surcharge imposed last year.

Port Hueneme City Manager Dick Velthoen said the new hires would restore the police force to its 1992 staffing level and put new people to work in the city’s customer service, building maintenance and public works departments.

The revised $7.75-million operating budget, which the council approved last week, also includes $7,000 to pay for four additional hours a week of animal control services from Ventura County to keep dogs off the beach.

Two years ago, the city slashed more than $1 million from the budget, which forced the city to close its cultural center and left only a bare-bones staff in recreation and other departments.

According to Velthoen, last year’s budget included a $60,000 surplus, thanks to a onetime $368,000 rebate from an insurance program.

Velthoen said next year’s operating budget will have a projected $261,000 deficit, which the city will balance using unappropriated general funds.

Velthoen said plans to build a new, money-saving water treatment facility and to increase rent on a city-owned apartment complex would most likely help keep deficits down in the future.

“But I need to tell you that if none of these revenue sources come to fruition in two years’ time, this city would again be faced with cuts in general funds services,” Velthoen said.