Ceres finally passes a budget. Changes coming to work on trees and police overtime
The Ceres City Council on Monday unanimously passed a balanced budget after deadlocking over a proposed $1.6 million deficit two months ago.
Officials cut funding for tree pruning and police overtime, but designated an additional $500,000 in savings from the Modesto fire contract for the reserves instead of spending it to offset reductions.
Not hiring a fire chief or battalion chief allowed the city to account for $480,000 of the $1.6 million deficit proposed in June, according to budget documents. But Ceres is projected to save another $500,000 this fiscal year because of the Modesto service agreement, City Manager Tom Westbrook said during the meeting. The service agreement began last week, about two months after the council approved it.
Council Members Bret Silveira and Couper Condit separately proposed spending the savings to partially offset reductions.
Silveira motioned to add the planned code enforcement officer and two park maintenance workers, as well as restore about $220,000 of police overtime funds.
Condit proposed funding city tree pruning, as staff initially proposed, in addition to allocating $365,000 in marijuana development agreements for police officers’ issues with the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act, which changed retirement and health benefits.
Mayor Javier Lopez voted in support of their proposals, but they failed 2-2. Council Member Linda Ryno opposed both and confirmed emergency tree pruning can continue despite the funding reduction. The city should take care of current employees before hiring new ones, Ryno said, indicating interest in revisiting the issue midyear.
“To bring on new employees when we know we have negotiations with all of our bargaining units just doesn’t seem to be the right thing to be doing at this time,” Ryno said.
The approved projected $24.5 million general fund budget follows Condit’s and Ryno’s repeated requests for a balanced budget. They voted to direct staff to cut $1.6 million in the June 14 meeting, but Lopez and Silveira dissented. The council gave the direction without taking a vote in the emergency June 30 meeting, which occurred to pass a resolution authorizing spending in lieu of a budget.
Projections show the city’s general fund reserves for the 2021-22 fiscal year at 30% of expenditures, above the council’s 18% minimum.
Other reductions made to eliminate the initially proposed $1.6 million deficit include reducing about $140,000 and $100,000 to the fleet allocations for police and parks, respectively. The reduction means police need to drive cars until they reach 100,000 miles instead of 85,000, Chief Richard Collins said. Cuts to parks affect equipment such as a mower to maintain the soccer fields in River Bluff Park, Public Works Director Jeremy Damas said.
The budget does not include any of the $5.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds the city received last month. Ryno and Silveira agreed on waiting to allocate the federal coronavirus recovery funds until the council discusses it separately from the budget approval. The city could use $1.4 million of the funds to make up the revenue loss from last fiscal year, per a staff report.
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
