Proposed 2015-’16 budget balanced with surplus

The City Council got its first look at the proposed budget for 2015-16 last week at the June 2 meeting, and the picture looks pretty good.

Finance Manager Kevin Mizuno cheerfully presented a balanced budget with a modest $28,516 surplus contingent on maintaining the status quo in labor negotiations with the Police Officers Assoc.

The combined budget for the General Fund and all other special funds, capital improvements and the RDA Successor Agency comes in at just over $10.84 million, an overall increase of 15 percent over last year.
The rosier outlook is largely due to real estate values returning to pre-recession levels and cash infusion from several one-time windfalls including $256,000 due the city from the county for prior year’s low-moderate income fund balance. Additionally, the city finally settled an old dispute with MDUSD over operating expenses for the Clayton Gym, sending $88,000 back into the general fund. The city also received $250,000  from the state for costs in winding down the now-dissolved Redevelopment Agency.

The General Fund, which makes up 54 percent of the city’s total budgeted expenditures, saw a modest 6.32 percent increase in expenditures largely due to increases in fixed costs, including a “titanic” 40 percent increase in the contract with Concord for police dispatch services.

Many of the city’s big dreams for capital improvements dried up in 2012 with the state’s “kill-off” of the Redevelopment Agencies. Major projects planned for the coming year are almost all dedicated to street improvements and pavement projects. The bulk of the $1.7 million needed to fund these improvements comes from gas taxes, Measure J and local, state and federal grants.

The Grove Park is safe for 20 years. Last Nov., voters renewed the funding for the park with an overwhelming 81 percent vote.

Landscaping improvements next year will understandably be limited by the city’s mandated 40 percent reduction in water use. The city plans on spending $477,000, mostly for improvements to the gateways and creek bridges. The hardscape and irrigation systems will go in as planned, but plantings will have to wait until the restrictions are lifted.

And finally, the side fund portion of the city’s unfunded pension liability continues to decline and should disappear completely in five years.

A public hearing on the budget is set for June 16, 2015 at 7 p.m. in Hoyer Hall at the library. The proposed budget can be reviewed at www.ci.clayton.co.us. Click on Government, Council, Agendas and Minutes, 2015 Agendas and June 2, Or call City Hall, 925.673.7300.