Publication Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Major issue emerges early: the budget
Major issue emerges early: the budget
(July 20, 2005) City Council race officially begins this week
by Bill D'Agostino
City leaders should stop "poor-mouthing," and be more innovative, Sanford Forte argued.
Palo Alto is figuratively fraying around the edges, according to Larry Klein.
City Hall will have a hard time paying for cherished services in coming years, Harold "Skip" Justman predicted.
The race for a majority of seats on the Palo Alto City Council officially kicked off on Monday (see sidebar), and one of the race's defining issues was immediately clear: the city's recently approved $120.7 million general fund budget.
Many of the challengers interviewed this week -- like Forte, Klein and Justman -- said a chief reason for their candidacy is to help the city better balance its spending plan. They argued the current nine council members had not reduced costs enough during recent years' tough economic times.
Last month, the council cut $5.2 million from the 2005-2006 budget, bringing long-term expenditures into line with stagnant projected revenues.
"There was an acceptance that $5 million was the right number; who says?" asked Klein, a former mayor who recently led the campaign to raise the monthly storm-drain fee. Cutting more funds from the budget would have allowed the city to set aside more money to make additional renovations to its aging infrastructure, he argued.
The city this year is spending more than $50 million on capital projects, such as renovating and expanding facilities like the Children's Library and the Animal Shelter. But council members have yet to set aside funds for numerous major long-desired projects, such as a new police headquarters or a new main library.
Incumbent Councilman Jack Morton defended his choices, saying the city balanced its budget in recent years without cutting into beloved services. He said he's running for re-election because he wants to continue working to manage the exploding costs of employee retirement and health care plans.
"We cannot continue to have the acceleration in benefit costs," Morton said. "It will so negatively impact what we do as a community that we have to bring that into control."
When the council approved the budget last month, they laid off 16 workers. Approximately 70 positions have been eliminated through attrition or layoffs since 2001-2002.
But Justman, a real estate lawyer, argued the city should cut additional staff -- and therefore funds -- by setting up nonprofits that would use volunteers to run some city programs, like the Palo Alto Art Center and the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo. He pointed out that the state uses volunteers to pick up litter on freeways.
"If we can get volunteers to do that, we can get volunteers to run the junior museum," Justman said. "That would be easy compared to cleaning freeways."
Justman bemoaned how the council has cut into some vital services in recent years -- it chopped library hours and reduced turn-around times in the city's Planning Department.
Other cuts proposed this year by City Manager Frank Benest, such as ending the city's Wingspread summer theatre program for youth and beginning a new $5 parking fee in the city's nature preserves, were removed from the budget by the council.
Many challengers argued council members are failing to properly give direction to Benest, letting him set policy, especially surrounding the budget. The city's voter-approved charter gives the city manager the responsibility for creating the initial draft budget, but the council has the final say.
"If there's a lack of leadership on the council then the city manager's going to run the city," Justman said.
Under the current system, Forte said, "the city manager, by fiat and ad hoc, makes policy for the city. I don't think that's appropriate."
The answer, Forte said, is to radically change the style of Palo Alto's governance. He proposed reducing the council from nine to seven members, each elected by district. Plus, he proposed having a directly elected "strong mayor" that would run the city instead of the city manager.
Forte, a member of the city's Library Advisory Commission, likened the city to a treasure ship.
"There are nine first mates on a treasure ship floating with no wind and no captain to guide them," Forte said. Having a strong mayor would allow the city to be more innovative, he said.
But Klein said he didn't believe there was "anything inherent in our structure that prevents better results." What's missing, he said, is strong leadership from current individual council members.
Staff Writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com.
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