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Over the next two years, the city of Watsonville plans to invest approximately $ 7.5 million to completely renovate the Sotomayor soccer field in Ramsay Park and prepare several other projects in the city’s largest park.
He also hopes to increase the Department of Parks and Community Services (PCS) funding by more than $ 1 million from pre-pandemic levels, and inject an additional $ 3 million into various parks and recreation facilities that are in desperate need of a facelift.
But for many at the Watsonville city council meeting on June 8, these investments did little to meet their calls for more funds for parks and cuts to the budget for public services. police that were postponed from last year’s budget hearings.
City council has not made a final decision on its two-year budget allocations, it only voted to approve a 5% increase, or about $ 28 more per month, in his annual salary. Elected leaders are expected to determine how the city will spend its projected general fund of $ 46 million at its June 22 meeting.
About two dozen people at the June 8 meeting said the Watsonville Police Department’s $ 20.2 million budget is inflated and investing nearly half of the city’s annual general fund in services. police fail to address the root cause of criminal poverty, lack of community and youth services and substandard housing, among others.
No one spoke in favor of the proposed budget.
Here is a breakdown of the 2021-23 biennial budget and the factors that could affect it in the months and years to come:
Neglect
The city’s overall budget is expected to be around $ 182.1 million in the coming fiscal year and $ 180.3 million next. But that includes special income and corporate funds that can only be spent on specific departments and uses.
The general fund is the city’s most malleable liquidity pool. This covers the cost of most of the employees and some of the day-to-day operations of the city.
The city will increase WPD’s budget by 7%, or about $ 1.3 million, from last fiscal year. The next fiscal year, the budget of the departments will increase by $ 862,838. According to the director of the administrative services department, Cindy Czerwin, this increase is the result of the increase in salary and pension costs.
The second largest service funded by the general fund is the Fire Department ($ 7.95M) and the third is PCS ($ 5.2M).
Parks records the second largest percentage increase of all departments in the proposed budget. This increase includes the addition of a community engagement and events supervisor, and the inclusion of two environmental science workshop staff who were previously paid from another fund.
The largest percentage increase over last year’s budget comes from the Community Development Department ($ 2.9 million). This roughly $ 1 million expansion was implemented over the past year as demand from the ministry has not slowed despite the pandemic.
Make a sale
A quarter of the general fund comes from sales tax, and although the pandemic has drained the general funds of many municipalities as sales plummeted under state-imposed stay-at-home orders, it was not the Watsonville case.
The southernmost city of Santa Cruz County has seen more of its residents spending more of their money locally and online – a departure from the pre-pandemic days when locals fled to neighboring towns for their purchases.
The city’s worst sales tax returns in the past year came in the early months of the pandemic, Czerwin says. Since then, sales tax revenue entering the city has increased each quarter despite the various openings and closings. This is thanks to strong growth in auto sales and county pool allocations that more than make up for losses in other areas such as fuel, restaurants and hotels, Czerwin explains.
Czerwin adds that she expects both of these increases to stabilize, especially the latter as tourism picks up and people start shopping in other cities again.
However, sales tax revenue is expected to increase 2.5% in fiscal year 2021-2022 and 3.3% the following year.
Police committee
The city’s ad hoc committee on policing and social equity is expected to have a recommendation ready for city council in the fall. This committee of 12 Watsonville residents, a police officer and three city council members have met in various formats over the past seven months to explore WPD’s connection to the community it serves and create solutions. to resolve any shortcomings that may arise.
Asked how committee work might affect the budget, Czerwin at the June 8 meeting said it was too early to tell.
That’s why we’ve made a pretty deliberate decision to stay the same with the policing budget this year, she said. Based on the recommendations of this committee and how the board chooses to act, it could mean changes to their budget or it could just mean changing the way they do things in this budget, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there must be a financial impact.
Remeasure?
Thanks to Measure Y and its predecessor, Measure G, approved by voters, the city is collecting an additional $ 4.4 million in sales tax to further fund police, fire and CPC services. WPD receives 54% of these revenues, fire 38% and PCS 8%.
With this additional funding, WPD in the proposed budget would hire a clerk and an administrative analyst, and Fire asks to hire two more firefighters. WPD is already using this funding to pay 11 employees, and Fire has hired seven employees through additional sales tax.
But several people at the June 8 meeting said WPD’s share in Measure Y should be lowered and more funds should go to parks.
Responding to questions from City Councilor Rebecca J. Garcia, City Manager Matt Huffaker said any changes to the measure should be returned and approved by voters.
The article can be placed on the ballot in several ways, Huffaker said. This includes community members who collect the signatures of 10% of the city’s voting electorate. In addition, the city council could also propose the item for a vote as it does with any other voting measure and if approved it will go to voters in a future election.
Safety plan
Watsonville is expected to receive $ 18.2 million from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act over the next two years. The vast majority of this money was not included in the budget proposed by the city.
City council will likely determine how it will spend that money at a meeting before its summer vacation in July.
In a three-question poll asking people what they would like to see funded with that money, 110 respondents said the following:
Investment in parks and outdoor spaces Investment in youth programming Investment in our downtown area and economic development Investment in safety, cleanliness and beautification of streets
This survey was one of several ways the city reached out to the community for feedback on the budget and funding for RAP. It also distributed a longer survey which received 770 responses and organized seven virtual budget meetings, including five town halls.
During these meetings, the public mostly echoed the respondents to the three-question survey.
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