Glendale OKs Budget Raising Fees, Reducing Services

Bringing two months of haggling to an uneasy conclusion, the City Council has reluctantly approved a $331-million budget that includes fee increases, reduced municipal services and the loss of some temporary jobs.

The council, which raced the clock to trim a $6.1-million budget shortfall before July 1, voted 4 to 1 Tuesday night, with Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg dissenting, on a budget that includes $494,000 in increased city fees.

The increases involve $250,000 in building permit fees, $144,000 in cable television fees and $100,000 in various other municipal charges, including those for variance permits, fire inspections and excavation permits.

Also, the upcoming 1997-98 budget--about $4 million less than the current spending plan--calls for the elimination of five temporary workers by July 10. The five, four of whom work 40 hours a week, include a computer specialist, an administrative assistant and three custodians, Assistant City Manager Robert K. McFall said.

The council, at City Manager David H. Ramsay’s recommendation, eliminated 23 vacant municipal staff positions. The council will also dip into savings accumulated by various city departments over the years to help close the budget gap, a tactic that Finance Director Brian A. Butler criticized before the council voted.

Mayor Larry Zarian believes the city’s revenues will increase in the next year. Zarian said the budget deficit was exacerbated because Proposition 218, the anti-tax initiative passed last November, prohibits the city from spending sewer and trash fees for municipal services, as it has for years. The fees are expected to reach about $2.8 million next year.

Bremberg, in a sometimes spirited budget discussion, lambasted Ramsay’s staff members for recommending what she deems frivolous expenses, such as paying $1,000 for watering a city department’s indoor plants, while cutting temporary workers from the payrolls.

“People are laid off, and we’re running around doing things like hiring people to water plants,” Bremberg said.