No police or fire chief: Turlock passes budget with several cuts amid coronavirus crisis
The Turlock City Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a budget for the next fiscal year, approving cuts to public safety and other positions as economic uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Under the $42 million general fund budget for 2020-21, the council will freeze a total of 35 formerly vacant positions, doubling the number of job funding cuts made last year in an effort to curb spending.
Police and fire chiefs are among the dozen police and eight fire department positions the city will freeze or continue to freeze. Turlock Police Chief Nino Amirfar said the council will not replace him after he retires and instead rely on two police captains to handle the administrative duties he does now. Meanwhile, the Fire Department has gone without a permanent chief since the council fired Robert Talloni last year.
“In the short term it’s something we have been doing (and) can continue to do,” Interim Fire Chief Gary Carlson said Tuesday. “It’s more important in my opinion to keep as many boots on the ground as we can for those 911 calls.”
The adopted budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 also includes freezing positions in engineering, recreation, planning, human resources and information technologies. The city will not hire a new Municipal Services Director, either, and plans to assign the role’s responsibilities to City Manager Toby Wells. The position has been vacant since Michael Cooke, also former Interim City Manager, left this spring.
Freezing — essentially temporarily unfunding — additional positions for the upcoming year allows the city to save about $2.4 million, said Senior Accountant Nadine Silva. Along with $2.5 million in CARES Act funding allocated by Stanislaus County, the job funding cuts help close the $4 million budget shortfall projected last month. Now, the Finance Department expects a net income of $1 million to the general fund in 2020-21.
As monthly economic reports and quarterly updates on sales tax revenue come in, council members said they will amend the budget as needed. Mayor Amy Bublak called for cutting back spending further, expressing concerns about planning on funding projections, including sales tax revenue estimates that have varied in the wake of coronavirus public health orders.
“I think we really need to look at how we’re going to do some cost savings to make sure we’re doing the right thing for the taxpayer,” Bublak said.
Council Member Nicole Larson also described the budget as unsustainable, and said the cuts reduce the quality of service Turlock residents deserve.
“We are saving money by not fully funding departments that need to be funded based on our population size,” Larson said. “We’re saving money by not replacing vehicles. This is not a time to consider these cuts excess.”
In the long term, Amirfar said the city needs to find another source of revenue. Not hiring a new police chief or buying new patrol cars only saves money in the short term, he said. The possible city sales tax ballot measure was not part of the council agenda Tuesday, but two weeks ago the council called for the creation of a citizen subcommittee to draft recommendations.
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 12:57 PM.