Rohnert Park begins cutting jobs

Santa Rosa Press Democrat

February 23, 2010

By Jeremy Hay

The Rohnert Park City Council, hoping to close a $4.4 million deficit that is projected to swell to $6 million next year, took an axe to its city budget Tuesday and said it would also ask voters for more money through a sales tax measure.

The council made layoffs, shut a swimming pool and park bathrooms, and reduced the city's chief cultural landmark, the Spreckels Performing Arts Center, to a rental facility.

The council also declared the city in a fiscal emergency and voted to put a ½-cent sales tax measure before voters in June.

“It's not a great day for us but it's something that has to be done,” said Vice-Mayor Gina Belforte.

In all, combined with a few changes to raise revenue — such as renting out an annex to the old City Hall — the council approved measures projected to save the city $985,000. It has set a goal of making at least $1.2 million in cuts.

“I'm excited,” Councilman Joe Callinan said at a break in the seven hour meeting. To convince voters that a sales tax was needed, he said, the city had to demonstrate its willingness to make cuts.

The workforce changes should save the city about $280,000 in salary and benefit costs. The council ordered staff to lay off two city workers — an engineering project manager and housing/redevelopment assistant — and freeze four empty positions. The hours of two workers were reduced.

Belforte said the cuts would take a terrible toll.

“These are people's lives,” she said before the 5-0 vote, her voice breaking for a second. “Someone right now has butterflies in their stomach wondering how they're going to pay their mortgage.”

“This is heart-wrenching for everyone,” said Mayor Pam Stafford.

The council also closed the swimming pool in M Section, the third of the city's five public pools to be shut in a year. They turned, at least temporarily, the Dorothy Rohnert Spreckels Performing Arts Center into a rental facility, getting the city out of the performing arts business for now. And they voted to close down public bathrooms in all the city's parks.

Other cuts included decommissioning city-run spas, turning off tennis court lights, eliminating public morning lap swims and taking over the maintenance of street lighting from a contractor.

The budget cuts laid the groundwork for the vote to declare a fiscal emergency — which needed to be unanimous in order to pass. That vote also included a resolution to hold a special election, on June 8, for a ½-cent city sales tax measure that would sunset in five years.

“Give us five years,” said Stafford. “Because it has an end in sight.”

The sales tax, said Dan Schwarz, interim city manager, would raise between $2.4 and $2.8 million a year for the city, which last month approved a $26.5 million budget that contained a $4.4 million deficit.

Tuesday's round of cuts followed by eight months an earlier round, when the council made $4.8 million in cuts, including $3.5 million from the city's public safety department, which lost seven sworn officers and three community service officers.

“If you had not done that, we would be on a precipice of no cash now,” said Schwarz, in urging the council to make the emergency declaration. “But our reserves remain dangerously low and we have to continue our efforts to right the ship.”

In January, Cotati's City Council also declared a fiscal emergency and said it will seek a ½-cent sales tax.

While many of the votes taken Wednesday on specific budget cuts were unanimous, some were not.

Councilmen Jake Mckenzie and Joe Callinan, who often end up on different sides of votes, both opposed the measure to temporarily turn the Spreckels Performing Arts Center into a rental facility, saying they wanted the city to explore other alternatives first.

And Callinan voted against closing M Pool — for a savings of $65,000 — saying, “This community was built for kids, built for families, to take that stuff is to take our identity.”

The council did direct staff to explore running Spreckels in a partnership with regional performing arts organizations, an arrangement that might one day allow the center to again operate as the full-fledged performing arts facility.

The changes to the Spreckels Center's operations will save the city $100,000, staff said.

The council, prompted by Callinan, also directed staff to cut 10 percent of the city's general non-departmental government expenditures, or about $200,000 out of $2 million. The funding includes items ranging from workers compensation insurance premiums to training budgets to office equipment maintenance.