Council to Discuss Budget Wish List

Oxnard’s City Council is scheduled to hold a budget powwow Tuesday with city department heads to discuss wish-list items ranging from hiring more police officers to setting up more after-school youth programs.

City leaders will also review the latest figures on revenue estimates and city staff recommendations on how to balance the budget.

A financial forecast the city released in January estimated that Oxnard would face a $925,000 deficit on a $62.4-million spending blueprint for the 1996-97 fiscal year if spending remained at existing levels.

Mayor Manuel Lopez said he believes the city will only be able to increase spending in some departments by cutting back in others.

“I do not see how, absent some other revenue source, we can expand on much of anything we have,” Lopez said.

Among some of the increased spending options contained in a city report are adding six police officers to the department’s anti-gang effort at a cost of more than $540,000, including new squad cars.

Another “service alternative” suggests opening six more after-school programs for youth, meaning all schools in the Oxnard School District would offer such programs. The cost is estimated at $180,000--a portion of which the city could pay with federal funds.