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Orange officials are considering bringing back the city’s crossing guard program after cutting roughly $70,000 Halloween event while grappling with a multi-million dollar deficit.
It comes as officials ask voters to approve a sales tax increase in November expected to help them address what started out as a projected $19 million budget deficit – making Orange one of a handful of OC cities with sales tax increases on the ballot.
[Read: Voters Across OC Are Considering Tax Increases This Year]
Now, city council members are considering reinstating the crossing guard program at their 6 p.m. Tuesday meeting.
“Due to current budget constraints, the Orange Police Department was asked to make a 10% budget reduction for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. These reductions included the School Crossing Guard Program (Program) in the amount of $425,000,” reads the staff report.
City staff note the program, which has been around since 1971, could come back by contracting with All City Management Services – a firm that has crossing guard contracts with several Orange County cities.
The police department identified 39 intersections that need crossing guards for elementary students, with city staff noting it would cost roughly $378,000 for 16 crossing guards annually and nearly $856,000 for 39 crossing guards.
Tuesday’s discussion comes on the heels of officials grappling with a series of budget cuts in an effort to shrink the deficit.
[Read: Orange Cuts $1.3 Million in Spending to Shrink Deficit; Will Officials Forego Pay?]
Council members voted 4-2 at their Aug. 27 meeting to cancel spending for the Treats in the Streets event – adding to a list of other city events they cut in August as they continue to weather an over $6 million spending gap.
“It’s painful to cut any events in the city but as the management leaders have said, this is not a good time to be throwing a party. I know it’s for children and serves a lot of families, but there’s still a huge cost,” Mayor Dan Slater said. “We’ve got to have police presence, we have to protect the children. If we don’t close off the streets, that’s super dangerous.”
Council members Arianna Barrios and John Gyllenhammer were the dissenting votes. Councilman Denis Bilodeau was absent.
“We could really simplify this for one final go. Until we can get some people on board to really cover it top to bottom. I think we’re just going around and around and beating this horse because we can’t seem to cut it up right,” Barrios said.
Councilwoman Ana Gutierrez called for staff to bring back a breakdown of cost for the 14 crossing guards they had before cutting them, adding that she couldn’t support the city paying for Treats in the Streets when they didn’t have crossing guards.
“We need to stay consistent and we really need to stick to keeping our students safe and we need to bring that back,” she said.
Officials voted 5-2 to cut the crossing guard program at the June 11 meeting. Bilodeau and Gutierrez were the dissenting votes.
At the Aug. 13 meeting, Bilodeau called on his colleagues to reconsider cutting the crossing guard program or ask the local school district to help fund it, but the city manager said the school district wasn’t willing to pitch in.
“I will continue to advocate that we either fund this activity or we make a very hard pitch to the school district,” Bilodeau said. “I think that leaving these crossing locations unguarded, I wouldn’t let my children walk to school if that was the situation.”
Gyllenhammer said at that meeting he was not in favor of bringing back the crossing guard program.
“Ultimately I think it should stay off our budget,” he said at the Aug. 13 meeting.
The crossing guard program cost the city $425,000, according to a staff report from the city council meeting on Aug. 13.
During public comment at the Aug. 27 meeting, one resident warned the city that if a child gets hit by a car, the city would have a lawsuit on its hands.
“If this city gets sued for an accident or for a death none of you will be able to sit up there and say you did not know because clearly you had a lot of parents that came here and told you a variety of possibilities that could happen by removing the crossing guards,” the resident said.
Treats in the Streets, which has been held for almost three decades, allows kids to trick-or-treat in Old Towne Plaza and participate in other Halloween activities.
According to a staff report, the budget for this event would have been nearly $68,000, which would have come from the struggling general fund. Just over $14,000 had been previously allocated for the event until officials canceled it last week.
“These are important events for the community. It builds so much history and memories,” said Councilman Jon Dumitru. “I’m not saying it can’t come back, but for this year with our budget issues I’m going to stay very consistent. We can’t afford it.”
Tuesday’s vote comes as officials struggled all summer to make cuts to their budget.
In August, officials voted to cut spending on other city events after calling on local nonprofits and business owners to step in and sponsor the events if they wanted them to continue to take place.
At that same meeting city council members decided not to cut their monthly stipends and health benefits, but rather do it on a voluntary basis.
Charlene Cheng, a city spokesperson, said in an Aug. 14 email that Slater, Gutierrez, Barrios and Gyllenhammer have refused to take the $600 monthly stipend.
Officials this summer also 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.
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]
They won’t be the only voters considering a sale tax hike in November
Officials in a host of OC cities facing budget deficits as public safety spending outpaces revenue are also asking voters to raise their sales tax to help float public services.
Treats in the Streets or Crossing Guards
Even after Tuesday’s vote, the annual halloween event could still be saved.
Brandy Romero, an Orange resident, pledged to raise $15,000 from the community, but said if it didn’t get it raised she would donate the money personally.
A local Target offered to donate pallets of candy and Councilmember Barrios offered her company to pay for the DJ.
With the pledged donations it wouldn’t cover the cost of the event, according to a staff report.
The council gave until Friday, Sept. 6 for a sponsor to take over the event.
Other residents were more concerned about losing crossing guards.
Greg Goodlander, president of the Orange Unified Education Association, said the cut to crossing guards is weighing on parents and students as the school year begins.
“I would argue that budget actions are a result of your priorities. A one day event for several hours is not nearly as important as the safety of our students every single day,” he said in a Tuesday interview.
Goodlander questioned why city officials would prioritize a Halloween event over ensuring kids cross the street safely.
“There’s multiple creative ways of dealing with the situation. The decision that they did make is the wrong one which is to cut a very important vital program to protect students, drivers, parents and guardians.”
In Santa Ana last year, city officials considered cutting the program and trying to push a volunteer based program. They ultimately decided to continue to fund crossing guards until 2026.
[Read: Can Thousands of Santa Ana School Kids Reply on Volunteer Crossing Guards?]
“Spending any city money on this event looks really stupid. Our library service has been just chainsawed to pieces, we don’t have crossing guards anymore,” said Reggie Mundekis, an Orange resident and local watchdog.
“There’s been a discussion that we can’t even give city employees a cost of living adjustment that is nowhere near what inflation is. Yet for some reason we need to have a Halloween event.”
Gigi Gradillas is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at gigi.gradillas@gmail.com or on Twitter @gigigradillas.
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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