Hollister officials describe city’s fiscal condition
This year Hollister officials will spend $1.4 million more on
basic services than it takes in as revenue, according to budget
projections.
Hollister officials describe city’s fiscal condition
This year Hollister officials will spend $1.4 million more on basic services than it takes in as revenue, according to budget projections.
In the last five years, 41 positions were shed citywide – a 24 percent reduction in employees.
Some departments only have a few workers left.
“The councils have tried to preserve safety, but everything else has been cut to the bone,” said Clint Quilter, city manager.
The general fund pays for day-to-day services that Hollister needs in order to run. The police and fire departments make up almost two thirds of the budget.
Police and fire are the only departments left to cut, said Doug Emerson, a city council member.
“We’re at a point, if we have to cut $1.4 million, it would have to come from public safety,” Emerson said. “We’ve done all the try[ing] to conserve on pencils and paper. That’s already been done.”
The police department is already struggling, said Jeff Miller, chief of police.
“We are operating a very bare-bones operation right here, make no mistake about that,” Miller said. “We can’t stand to lose anything.”
A city the size of Hollister should have more than 50 police officers, Miller said. Hollister has 29.
The city deficit has already been reduced. It was $3 million in 2004.
“Every year to balance the budget we would reduce some more positions and we would draw from the reserves,” Emerson said.
City officials cannot borrow rom reserves anymore. After the 2007-2008 fiscal year, the reserves will be down to $2.7 million.
“We don’t want to get much below $2.7,” Quilter said.
City officials need about that much in reserve so that they can pay the city’s bills. The city receives the bulk of its money twice a year, but city officials have to pay bills regularly.
If the reserves run too low city officials will need to borrow money from other funds to pay the bills. That could happen this year, Quilter said.
“I don’t see that happening, but it certainly is a possibility,” he said.
To preserve and improve services, the city needs more money. One method of increasing revenue is by increasing the city sales tax. A Nov. 6 ballot initiative, Measure T, would increase it by 1 percent.
It would provide city officials with a steady source of income for the general fund, between $3.5 and $4 million annually if it passes. It would expire after five years.
Nearly half of the general fund comes from taxes. About three quarters of that is from sales taxes.
The rest of the money comes from various charges and fees, including vehicle licenses and building permits.
Most of the general fund is used to pay for police and fire services.
The rest is split between about 19 other departments. That includes the people who maintain city parks and clean and repair city streets. It also includes the workers who pay the city’s bills, and fix the city’s police cars and fire trucks.
To cut spending, a variety of city services have been reduced or eliminated. The police department no longer investigates certain crimes, Miller said.
“We always want to make sure we always protect people over property,” he said.
People can go down to the station and fill out a police report.
“There is still a way to report,” Miller said. “We just unfortunately at this time don’t have the officers to respond to every type of reported crime.”
If a house is robbed, or a car is stolen, police will respond to the call and conduct an investigation.
If a car stereo is stolen or building is vandalized, the police will not respond or investigate unless the crime is in progress or a suspect is known, Miller said.
They will respond to gang graffiti calls.
They will not respond to traffic accidents unless there are injuries or blocked lanes, Miller said.
Hollister has a gang problem, Miller said. Dealing with it takes a three-pronged approach: prevention, intervention, and suppression.
The prevention and intervention programs were cut. That leaves suppression.
“I don’t think we have anywhere near an optimal suppression program right now,” he said.
The police department is not the only division that is struggling.
Clay Lee is the director of community services. He oversees seven departments: parks maintenance, recreation, sewer collection, sewer treatment, street maintenance, water and vehicle maintenance.
The City council members cut the recreation budget more than 50 percent over the last five years.
“It has had a drastic effect,” Lee said. “Fees went up basically between 30 and 40 percent, effective after Measure R failed. That’s huge.”
Fewer people are participating in recreation programs. Registration has dropped between 20 and 30 percent.
“People just can’t afford it anymore,” Lee said.
Recreation had to reduce their programs by 60 percent. Some recreation programs were lost, such as several youth summer camps and seven-on-seven youth soccer.
Basic maintenance services have also been cut.
The street maintenance division is responsible for pothole repairs, street sweeping, leaf collection, weed abatement, maintaining regulatory and street name signs, sidewalk, curb and gutter maintenance.
“We have a lot of sidewalks that have not been repaired in the last five years because of the cost,” Lee said. “We have not been repairing street signs. There is limited, if any, sidewalk repair.”
When the moratorium lifts, a private firm will carry out Hollister’s building responsibilities. In mid-2004, the building staff either received new jobs or retired. No one was replaced.
“We had to put a building department in place,” said Bill Avera, development services director.
Avera oversees the building and planning divisions. A private company fulfills all of the city’s building services, Avera said.
The planning department will have more work once the moratorium lifts. To deal with the increase, staff is processing applications for projects that have been on hold for years.
“At the same time we also contracted with a planning firm,” Avera said.
The planning firm will take on some of the work. The cost will be passed onto the applicant.
“We’re trying our very best to keep service maintenance to the level they have been,” Avera said.
The finance division is required by California law to maintain services to a certain level despite cuts.
“In finance we can’t say that we’re not going to process that,” said Robert Galvan, director of administrative services. “Nothing is forgotten. It can’t be. There really is no backburner.”
Galvan oversees finance and human resources. The finance department is responsible for payroll, accounts payable, monthly and yearly audits.
“Financial record keeping is very important and it requires a tremendous amount of time,” Galvan said. “The staff is just overlapping in areas that you wouldn’t normally find in places that are fully staffed.”
State law requires that finance staff complete their duties in a timely manner.
“How long can you sustain the effort and that level of accuracy with one person doing the job of two, or in some cases three?”
Staff in every department is doing their best to keep up performance despite the budget cuts, Galvan said.
“The staff shortage is real and the city has been strained to the point that it is very difficult to maintain the workload,” Galvan said.
In the transition from a small town to a city, Hollister has been able to maintain its identity as a community that cares, said Dave Huboi, a volunteer for the Measure T campaign.
“The disabled, the homeless, we’ve been able to care for these people,” Huboi said. “Without Measure T, it’s like we don’t care. It’s like we’ve given up.”
