Orange officials shrank what started out as a projected $19 million deficit down to $6.7 million.
It comes after city council members narrowly passed a ballot measure asking voters to increase sales tax in the city.
And officials are still looking to trim more off spending.
City council members voted 6-1 at their Aug. 13 meeting to slash spending on city events like concerts in the park during the summer and the city’s tree lighting ceremony in December.
They also froze full-time vacant positions in the police department.
Councilman Jon Dumitru was the dissenting vote.
That same night, council members also held a discussion about forgoing their pay and health benefits at the request of Councilwoman Ana Gutierrez, but took no formal action to do so across the board.
“We have asked the community and we have asked staff to take cuts. I just felt like it was a way for us to lead by example,” Gutierrez said at the meeting. “I have decided to forgo my stipend, and I’ve done that already, and just hoping that you all would join me as well.”
Mayor Dan Slater and Council members Arianna Barrios, Kathy Tavoularis and John Gyllenhammer said the decision to forego the $600 per month council stipend should be an individual decision.
“We never want to ostracize or disenfranchise people that are not making a fair wage, and they need the stipend,” Tavoularis said. “And I think that’s very important that we keep that open for people as we need good people running for office in the future.”
Charlene Cheng, a city spokesman, said in an email that Slater, Gutierez, Barrios and Gyllenhammer have refused to take the $600 monthly stipend.
Cheng did not answer questions regarding how much council members get in health benefits and said the inquiry will be handled as a public records request.
“Our City Attorney wants to look further into what health information we could release,” she said.
Last week’s discussion came after officials cut a series of hiring freezes, delayed critical maintenance projects, like roads and parks and created new revenue streams including upping parking enforcement on residents.
It also comes after officials, at the end of June, narrowly voted to put a 0.5% sales tax measure on the November ballot that – if approved by voters – would sunset in 10 years and generate $20 million annually to help with budget woes.
[Read: Orange Asks Voters to Raise Taxes To Bail Out City Budget]
Orange officials are not the only ones in OC to ask voters to consider raising the sales tax in November to help float city budgets and services like public safety.
[Read: Voters Across OC Are Considering Tax Increases This Year]
Slashing City Events & Cutting Police Vacancies
In June, Orange City Council members directed staff back to cut spending on city events, with officials saying that local nonprofits could step in and take over the events if they wanted to keep them going.
Last week, officials formally voted to cut the spending for a series of city events except the Treats in the Streets Autumn Festival, where kids go trick-or-treating in Old Towne Plaza.
City staff said the Veteran’s Day event and the Treats in the Streets were the only events not being covered by outside groups although the Community Foundation of Orange has offered to host an event in honor of veterans at the Field of Valor.
Officials directed staff to come back with an item breaking down the costs for the Autumn festival at the next council meeting.
The vote came after officials postponed a discussion in July on making $1.4 million in cuts to the budget, including cutting about $400,000 on special events spending and slashing over $1 million by freezing six police vacancies.
[Read: Will Orange Slash Over $1.4 Million More in Budget Spending to Help Shrink Deficit?]
Tuesday’s vote instead resulted in a $1.3 million cut.
“There is a reduction in the amount due to a records manager position that is under recruitment,” Cheng said about the roughly $100,000 decrease in reductions. “The rest of the vacancies are fluid, and include both public safety and city hall positions.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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