Turlock mayoral candidates clash in debate as city spends down reserves

The candidates for Turlock mayor talked about water, roads and the incumbent’s leadership at a Thursday night forum at the Carnegie Arts Center.

And they talked about the city’s roughly $42 million general fund budget, which primarily pays for police and fire, and that the city is on track to drain all of the fund’s reserves in about three years after the City Council approved nearly $3.3 million in additional spending this year.

“We are spending down on our reserves in a good economy,” said Councilwoman Amy Bublak, one of the four candidates for mayor in the November election and who voted for most of the additional spending.

The other candidates are Mayor Gary Soiseth, former Mayor Brad Bates and Jaime Franco, who unsuccessfully ran for council in 2016. The Turlock Journal put on the candidate forum, which drew about 200 people.

Franco is the long shot and spoke about his gratitude in coming here as an immigrant from Mexico and being able to run for mayor. He also spoke about the need for more opportunities for children, treating homeless people with dignity and respect, and the need for better roads on the city’s west side.

Bublak said Turlock is using reserves to pay employees’ salaries and benefits, which she said is “absolutely the worse thing you can do.”

Bates said there has been so much conflicting information about the city’s finances that he compared it to a “pinball in a pinball machine,” adding that Soiseth’s recent State of the City address said Turlock was strong. “That’s not true,” Bates said. “... We are facing an extremely serious financial future.”

The City Council got a glimpse of that future at its Aug. 14 meeting during a staff presentation about the general fund and its reserves.

Administrative Services Director Kellie Jacobs-Hunter explained to the council that Turlock expects to draw down reserves in its current fiscal year — which started July 1 — by $3.3 million from $9.7 million to $6.4 million and is expected to draw down reserves by an additional $5.9 million over the city’s next two fiscal years.

That calculation does not include the general fund subsidy to the city’s engineering division, which is nearly $378,000 in the current budget, but is expected to be less in future years after the council this year increased what the division charges for its services.

Jacobs-Hunter said in an interview that the council approved about $200,000 in an additional spending that will come from general fund reserves since the Aug. 14 meeting.

“The picture before you is serious, but I would not say hopeless,” City Manager Bob Lawton told the council at the Aug. 14 meeting. Lawton started as Turlock’s top administrator this summer. He said city officials will work with the council to minimize expenses and maximize revenues and on other measures.

Lawton also told the council: “It’s a serious situation, but we do have, we do have the ability to sustain ourselves for another, at least another two years.”

The council from March through July approved nearly $3.3 million in spending that will come from general fund reserves, with about $1.4 million of that for compensation increases for police and other city employees and about $1 million toward hiring three firefighters, four police officers and two dispatchers. These employee and compensation costs will carry over and increase in future budgets.

Bublak voted for all of the increases except for $1.4 million in spending, which primarily was for hiring the additional public safety employees and a lease for a police radio system, according to city records. Soiseth voted for all of the spending increases.

“I will not stand by and hoard our money in our reserves while our Police Department, our Fire Department and our dispatchers plead with us to make sure we pay a competitive salary to keep them here,” Soiseth said at Thursday’s candidate forum. “Because keeping a community safe ... is economic development and will keep our reserves strong.”

Soiseth said Turlock will be aggressive in monitoring its expenses and finding new revenues.

He was elected to his first term in November 2014, and his tenure has been marked by several controversies. Bublak and Bates brought them up, and Bates talked about all of the department heads who have left under Soiseth’s tenure and essentially said the mayor has overstepped his authority by being too involved in city operations.

The departures include two city managers, a city attorney, a police chief, a city clerk, a fire chief, a city engineer and the deputy director of development services and planning. Some retired; others left for jobs at other cities.

Bublak and Bates said Soiseth has a conflict of interest regarding the Stanislaus Regional Water Authority, the joint powers authority Ceres and Turlock are using to build a water treatment plant along the Tuolumne River and near Fox Grove Park. The Turlock Irrigation District will provide the river water for the plant.

They did not provide details at Thursday’s forum but said they would come out soon. Bublak posted a video on her Facebook page after the debate, claiming Soiseth had positioned himself to make money off the plant as a consultant. She called for investigations by the Stanislaus County Grand Jury and the California Attorney General’s Office.

“Soiseth likely stands to pocket up to one million dollars a year at Turlock residents’ expense,” said Bublak, who also wants Turlock Councilman Bill DeHart investigated for consulting money she says he received from Soiseth’s biggest political contributor.

Soiseth said Friday that Bublak’s allegations are “100 percent untrue.”

Soiseth had worked for the Modesto Irrigation District as its regulatory administrator until resigning Sept. 7. He said he will be a water and energy consultant and has set up a limited liability corporation called Central California Advisors.

He said he will do no business with Turlock, Ceres, the Turlock Irrigation District or the Stanislaus Regional Water Authority. Soiseth said he will check with Turlock’s city attorney to ensure he has no conflicts of interest with potential clients.

Bublak could not be reached for comment Friday.

This story was originally published September 21, 2018 at 5:12 PM.