Council to Grapple With Balancing 2-Year Budget

Like a shopper who packs his grocery cart to the brim--only to realize at the checkout line that he is short of cash--Thousand Oaks has tough decisions to make about its two-year budget.

The City Council wants to open the Thousand Oaks Library on Fridays and add two police patrols. City Manager Grant Brimhall wants to hire an economic development manager, create a World Wide Web site on the Internet where the public could review municipal codes, and spend $200,000 to build restrooms in a small park beside the Civic Arts Plaza.

But Thousand Oaks’ proposed $135.3-million spending plan lacks the cash to do all those things.

Something’s got to give, and the City Council’s special budget meeting on Wednesday figures to be a drawn-out, contentious affair.

At the meeting, the council will consider adopting the budget and will hear presentations from several department heads on details of the spending plan.

“I think it’s going to be a lengthy hearing,” said Councilwoman Elois Zeanah. “There are just so many things to talk about. I have a lot of questions.”

Councilwoman Judy Lazar said the council determined its budget priorities for the 1995-96 and 1996-97 fiscal years during a study session in November.

Now that Zeanah and council colleague Jaime Zukowski have rejected one potential source of new revenue--a proposed increase in business licensing fees--the panel must decide whether reducing current services is the only way to accomplish its goals, Lazar said.

“It’s one thing to say that we want to keep the library open seven days, and that we want more police,” Lazar said. “But if we can’t find the money for this, we’re just spitting in the wind.

“I want to see whether we can do these things without [finding new revenue sources]. If not, what would we have to cut?”

Thousand Oaks, which contracts for police services with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, would have to spend $285,000 annually to add two police patrol cars and staff them for 40 hours a week. And the city would have to pay $114,000 a year to keep the public library open on Fridays, according to the budget.

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One thing that could go, in Zeanah’s opinion, is the proposed economic development manager--an official who would be in charge of attracting businesses to Thousand Oaks. She argued that the $250,000 Thousand Oaks is now spending on economic development is more than enough, because the city’s wealth and low crime rate make it an attractive business location.

“I have more concerns about spending so much money on economic development when we are already doing so well,” Zeanah said. “Thousand Oaks doesn’t need to attract businesses. They are coming here on their own because of our quality of life.”

Zeanah said the city should focus on retaining businesses that are currently in Thousand Oaks and speeding up the process of getting city building permits.

Brimhall said the economic development manager was suggested by the Community Budget Task Force, a residents committee the council created to assist the budget process. The spending plan incorporates 15 of the task force’s 24 recommendations.

The economic development job could be done by a staff member, an outside advisor under contract, or even the executive director of a city-funded nonprofit group like Oxnard’s Economic Development Corp., Brimhall said.

“It is working quite well in Oxnard, from what I understand,” Brimhall said of the latter option. “It would be up to the council to decide how they would want to do this.”

Brimhall is also looking to beef up the city’s code-enforcement and building-inspection efforts by adding an officer for each service. And he is considering a plan to consolidate the city’s code compliance and building departments to reduce bureaucratic overlap, he said. The consolidation may include adding the city’s Housing Services office, which oversees affordable housing.

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Councilman Mike Markey said that if adding police patrols and opening the library on Fridays means cutting existing services, he may be willing to wait.

“It’s near and dear to my heart to add police officers,” said Markey, who works as a detective in Compton. “But if it comes down to ‘What are we going to cut?’ I don’t know if I would be willing to cut some current service.”

Zukowski disputed that severe cuts would be needed to pay for the council’s budget goals, saying a little belt-tightening of what she sees as wasteful practices--such as travel and vehicle expenses--may yield a surprising amount of cash.