Budget Address

Dear friends,
The last budget study session was interesting to say the least. Add to that the interview that Delgado gave to Cchannels 46 & 35, and we have bumpy roads ahead.

Delgado's vision appears to keep Ord property sales money and rental income from the Preston Park and Abrahms Housing areas from being added to the City’s general fund revenues. Delgado would like to use Preston rental income to build parks and improve open space in the Preston Park area. The same pertains to Abrahms Park. The millions the city will be getting from the Dunes Development for land sales, (aprox. 24 million dollars) will only be used for parks and open space on the Ord property. And possibly fund projects approved by council, but definitely not used for day to day city operations.
These measures would reduce the city's available resources to less than 5 million dollars annually.
This would mean drastic cuts in personnel, programs and the level of service the City currently provides to it's citizens.
The City is currently operating with 92 employees and a budget of 15 million annually, serving 21K citizens. The city of Monterey for example operates with over 500 employees, on a budget over 50 million, serving 25K citizens.
I truly believe that Marina is providing the best level of service possible for the size of budget we currently have. I also believe that further reductions in City staff or City programs will drastically affect the quality of life of our citizens. It will also allow the un-desired gang and crime levels to rise and this will have a direct impact on day to day life of all ages.
The easy and quick solutions are not always the best solutions. Cutting personnel is easy, and does not address the problem at hand. Finding and raising revenues to the City will be difficult but it will solve the problem.
Our citizens long ago expressed themselves by establishing a fire department long before we became a city. And a couple of years ago the citizens again expressed the disire to split the Public Safety program into separate Police and Fire Departments.

During the next couple of months the City Council will be reviewing the 2009-10 City budget. Input from the citizens will be critical in guiding the City Council during this process. Now is the time to be involved, now is the time to care. Now is the time to guide the City through this economic downturn.
Together, we can do this.

Dave McCall