City Adopts New Two-Year Budget

The Gilroy City Council approved the city’s next two-year budget during its meeting Monday, adding in a last-minute request to fully fund a public safety officer for the school district.

The budget approval marks the end of an intensive six-month process, with each element of the city’s operation collaborating under the Finance Department to determine their individual budget for the next two years.

“Today I extend proudly that we worked together as a team,” said Mayor Al Pinheiro, addressing City Administrator Tom Haglund and the rest of the city’s staff.

The meeting’s 11th-hour funding request came from school board member Jaime Rosso, who apologized for the timing but stressed that the modest gains the city made over the past two years would be well spent by funding a public safety officer.

“In the light of the improved budget situation with the city and the declining-budget crisis of the school district, I believe it reasonable to ask that the city once again restore full funding for a public safety officer,” Rosso wrote in a letter to the council.

Since 2009, the city has split the cost of the officer with the district, each contributing $78,000 to fund the position.

The last-minute addition came after considerable council discussion, including the questioning of Police Chief Denise Turner as to the necessity of the additional position.

The council ultimately compromised to fully fund the position for one year, allocating the slight surplus it maintained after agreeing to a handful of additional expenditures at its May 9 budget study session. 

Those expenditures included:

• Gilroy Economic Development Corporation (GEDC): An additional $40,000 over two years, bringing the total two-year funding of the operation that supports local business ventures to $200,000.
• Gilroy Visitor’s Bureau: An additional $100,000 over two years, bringing the total funding to $300,000. The one-time funding will help the bureau find an independent revenue source.
• Hiring of a development center manager: The new position, at a two-year cost of $162,000, would serve as a liaison between the GEDC and the city, also working to support economic development.

The budget will take effect with the new fiscal year on July 1, providing a road map for city finances for the next two fiscal years.

This is the second budget since Gilroy adopted a two-year approach, one that City Administrator Tom Haglund wrote “offers the City Council the ability to provide for more systematic long-range planning over the budget term.”

Many of the dramatic cuts required in the tough financial climate facing the previous budget were maintained, including significant cuts to staff.

Minor gains were seen, including the transition of one police sergeant to a captain position.

Yet as the city slowly recovers from the economic recession, including an uptick in sales tax revenue and development income, the finance department will continue to monitor the budget situation and embark on a partial revision process before the next fiscal year.

“Congratulations to the school district, and congratulations to all of us as we go forward with our fingers crossed that the next two years will be greater than we’re projecting,” said Mayor Pinheiro.

The council approved four separate items in the budget package: the two-year city budget, the appropriation limit for fiscal year 2012, the capital improvement budget through 2017 and the two-year budget for the South County Regional Wastewater Authority. The SCRWA item included a six-year capital improvement budget.