Modesto council gets sneak peek at budget

The City Council will get a sneak peek Tuesday at Modesto’s upcoming budget. And during a workshop after the council meeting, members will hear about city officials’ latest effort to tackle graffiti.

Finance Director Gloriette Genereux said staff will talk about the general fund budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year, which starts July 1. The roughly $110 million general fund makes up about a third of the city’s operating budget and primarily pays for public safety. She said staff still was working on the presentation and more information was not available.

The council typically holds two budget workshops in May before adopting the budget in June.

Staff also will update council members on Modesto’s effort to eradicate graffiti. Acting Deputy City Manager Brent Sinclair said staff plans to bring the anti-tagging proposal to the council’s April 28 meeting for adoption.

At its regular meeting, council members are expected to:

▪ Approve spending $415,000 in one-time funding for the city’s 11 fire stations. The money will be spent on upgrading emergency generators, tackling deferred maintenance and repairs.

▪ Enter into an agreement with the Sylvan Union School District for a project to build a roundabout at Kodiak and Lincoln Oak drives in front of Ustach Middle School. The agreement gives the city’s contractor permission to enter school property to make improvements for the roundabout, such as reconstructing the school driveway. The roundabout would replace a yield sign at Lincoln Oak. The city has not awarded the project to a contractor. A city report says that will be brought back to the council for approval at a future meeting. The report states it will cost $275,239 to build the roundabout.

▪ Pass a resolution in support of Assemblyman Adam Gray’s Assembly Bill 1242, which the Merced Democrat introduced in response to the State Water Resources Control Board’s proposal to increase how much water from the Merced, Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers flows to the San Francisco Bay Delta.

Critics say the board’s proposal would take too much river water, which would result in increased groundwater pumping by farmers in Merced and Stanislaus counties when the region’s groundwater basins are stressed by several years of drought. Critics add that about 800,000 people rely on those basins for drinking water. Gray’s bill would require the state to mitigate the effects of increasing the rivers’ flows.

Proponents say the Delta is too salty and needs more freshwater for fish and wildlife. The State Water Resources Control Board is expected to release a revised environmental report on its proposal in late summer, and the board could make a decision by late this year or early 2016, according to a water board official.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St. The workshop will be held in Room B300.

This story was originally published April 13, 2015 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Modesto council gets sneak peek at budget."