Budget Workshop Planned Saturday

The operative phrase of a City Council workshop Saturday will be “Show me why you need the money.”

From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at City Hall, managers of seven city departments or programs--ranging from the Police Department to the south Oxnard community center--will give a detailed accounting of their proposed budgets for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The workshop, and another scheduled for the following Saturday, will pave the way for a new municipal budget to be adopted before month’s end.

An approach called zero-based budgeting, which asks managers to justify every dollar given to the department, will be used. The council requested the technique last year, said Grace Hoffman, deputy city manager.

“This is slightly different than what we’ve done in the past,” she said. “The rationale is that they’re interested in getting into what the elements are of each program.”

So parks managers will be asked to explain why they want $107,000 to clean park restrooms every day of the week in the summer rather than the present two days a week. Police Department administrators will talk about why they expect a $750,000 reduction in labor costs for criminal investigations next year. And Planning Department officials will justify whether increased permit activity warrants hiring a new planner as they have requested.

Managers of another seven departments, including the Fire Department, will repeat the process the following week.