City Spending

All levels of government must remain accountable to the people they serve. City spending should be regularly evaluated to ensure that funds are used wisely and reflect community priorities. After reviewing our current budget, I see some areas where adjustments could be made to keep costs under control—particularly in personnel expenses, vehicles, and parks maintenance. Download an easy to read budget analysis as provide by Fred Birnbaum HERE

 

In my own household and business, when costs rise above income, we have to make careful choices. We cut back or make temporary adjustments, but we don’t pass unnecessary burdens onto family or clients. Our city should follow the same principle. It's not always easy, but it is necessary for the long term health of our community.

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• IDEA 1: Smarter vehicle management | Evaluate the city’s vehicle fleet and identify areas where high-cost vehicles may not be necessary. For example, instead of maintaining newer or specialized vehicles for non-emergency purposes such as grounds keeping or animal shelter services, we could sell those and replace them with more affordable used or basic models. This keeps costs down while still getting the job done.

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• IDEA 2: Shared responsibility in personnel costs | Staffing is one of the largest expenses in the budget. I value the work of our city employees and believe they deserve fair pay and benefits. At the same time, during tight budget years, we should explore temporary measures such as asking higher-paid department heads to take on additional responsibilities, or modestly adjust their benefit contributions. Another option is a short-term salary adjustment for top administrators—paired with a commitment to restore pay levels (plus a small bonus) once revenues from sources like the nightly rental tax create a surplus. This way, leadership helps carry the burden without impacting frontline services.

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• IDEA 3: Efficiency and partnerships | Before cutting services or raising taxes, the city should prioritize efficiency. This could mean partnering with neighboring cities for shared services (such as equipment storage or specialized staff), using technology to streamline operations, or contracting out certain tasks when it saves money without reducing quality.

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• IDEA 4: [by Nicole Graf] Instead of purchasing the land to build a new city public works yard, building an access road on the South side of town across the river, perhaps we could talk to Santa Clara about an expanded & shared yard, which already has great access, and is very close to our city boundaries already. Great way to reduce capital expenditures, etc.

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• IDEA 5: [by Jon Graf] Let's take that shared principle one step further, and propose to Santa Clara to share the public works equipment and vehicles also. We can easily calendar the days, or again, perhaps we could join forces for personnel.

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