Mayor Schroeder, Claremont Council Commends City Staff on Balanced Budget

The Claremont City Council praised city staff, including City Manager Tony Ramos's office, on drafting a balanced budget for the rest of 2012 and through 2014.

The city will run a budget deficit of $1.2 million for the 2012-13 year, and a small budget surplus of $463,000 in 2013-2014. The figures for next year's budget include capital works projects, which are being funded through reserve funds set aside for such projects, according to a city spokesperson.

Ramos and his staff, along with representives from the Claremont Police Department and other city offices, presented the council with the ways they cut costs and saved money in the last year, and their future projections that will allow them to continue saving money.

Mayor Larry Schroeder said the city was fortunate that it bucked some of the problems that other California cities have faced, such as financial problems from the recession and the loss of city funds after the California Supreme Court put 400 city redevelopment agencies.

"I don't know how these guys don't see this stuff coming," Schroeder said.

"We're very fortunate in this town," Councilmember Sam Pedroza said.

"We've made the hard cuts from the staff end, we started making those decisions two to three years ago. It's a great budget and it's a budget to be proud of, a budget thats on the progressive end. You read in the papers what other cities are going through, we're very fortunate that in our town we're not going through that."

Mayor Pro Tem Opanyi Nasiali called the city staff who drafted the budget "efficient" and "creative," in balancing the city's finances.

The balanced budget was accomplished through a combination of tax increases - both sales and property taxes - and spending cuts, according to the city budget review.

Many of the cuts were made to city staff through the elimination or reclassification of several positions.

Also in the budget were increases in employee contributions to their retirement plans and additional revenue from the removal of the former Claremont Redevelopment Agency.

However, some of the city council members still took issue with some of the assumptions made in the new budget.

Council Member Corey Calaycay asked the rest of the council for a motion to review the proposed growth for the landscaping and lighting budget, which was assumed to grow by at least 2 percent.

Calcaya said he was wary of any growth projections ahead of an egineers report.

"I don't think its conservative to assume something thats reliant on a report to judge it," Calcaya said.

"There may be efficiencies there that we cant account for before the report comes out."

Pedroza disagreed, saying that some of the assumptions in the budget were necessary. 

"The assumptions are, whether their conservative or liberal, that if we're going to assume we have those revenues...we now know what we need to cut," he said. "I guess how do you put the chicken in front of the egg in this instance?How do we cut something if we don't know what we're going to get?"

After a short debate about whether or not to propose a motion to disallow such assumptions, Ramos provided clarification and noted that the budget could be adjusted throughou the year.

"In some regards all of you are correct….we are making some assumptions," Ramos said.

"If the economy were to tank again, if the state were to take our money again, we can go back…and adjust and change your budget. We have the ability to correct as we go along. It is a blueprint to guide us through the next few years, and we can adjust as we go along."

The city council will vote to approve the budget at its next meeting on June 26.