City of Colton Budget for New Fiscal Year Passes

After much consternation and micro-analysis, the City of Colton Council passed the budget for 2014-15 with a 6-1 vote with Councilman Frank Navarro voting no, which included a hiring freeze and 10 percent cut in the budget for all departments. Jessica Hurst, finance manager, presented to the council a budget that is looking to have a $1.8 million dollar deficit for the upcoming fiscal year and that deficit will be covered by the city’s reserves of $5 million, leaving $3.2 million for the 2015-16 budget years. The budget for 2014-15 is set at $32 million with an estimated $30 million dollars in revenue coming in to offset the expenses. Councilman Navarro said, “We need to find something to lower the deficit and I think staff should go back and re-examine their fiscal needs for the upcoming year and report back to the council department by department, once again. It is unacceptable to start off a new year with this type of debt hanging over our heads.” Speaking in the affirmative for approving the budget that evening was Councilman Frank Gonzales, who stated, “The city council needs to approve the budget because going over the proposed budget item by item is a waste of time and money, and not approving the budget at this time sends a message out to potential investors and new retail businesses that the city isn’t viable and a questionable place to invest their monies in.” With discussions going back and forth between the other council members, a request was made of City Treasurer Aurelio De La Torre on what he felt would be the best direction for the city to take regarding approving or not approving the budget that evening. De La Torre suggested, “I feel the council should move forward and approve the budget tonight, and institute a hiring freeze immediately along with a 10 percent reduction of each department’s budget for the new fiscal year. A finance director needs to be hired and the request for a new audio equipment system in City Hall should be tabled.” Finance Manager Hurst proceeded to ask if the hiring freeze was to be applied to both the police and fire departments, and the council replied with a resounding no for both the sworn and unsworn positions. Before a vote was made on De La Torre’s suggestion, two members of the community, John Anaya and Gary Grossich, commented. Anaya said, “Even though the city doesn’t have a finance director, filling that position will create more debt for the city, which we don’t need; we can’t spend more than what we have.” Grossich said, “The council is ignoring the elephant in the room, which is the $1.8 million debt, and it needs to figure how to stop the bleeding. Also, the revenue that the city receives from the Colton Landfill will be going away in the next few months, which provides approximately $140,000 of income for the city.” The budget was then approved with the caveat that the council would oversee each of the departments spending in the fiscal year.