Proposed Glendale Budget Calls for Fee Hikes

GLENDALE — Increasing fees while cutting services, the Glendale City Council has closed the $6.1-million deficit in its proposed $331-million budget with reductions that include the possible layoff of an estimated 12 temporary workers.

The council is expected to vote on the budget proposal Tuesday, according to Director of Personnel John H. Hoffman.

Nearly every city division--public works, library services, parks and recreation--will experience budget cuts, Mayor Larry Zarian said.

The fee increases, expected to total $350,000, will include building permits, building inspections and fire inspections.

“My mission was to see how we could get where we are now, without major layoffs and major sacrifices in services, and we’ve done that,” he said.

Although Zarian and Councilmen Dave Weaver and Sheldon S. Baker expressed reluctant support Wednesday for the proposed budget, Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg said she may vote against it.

“These are incredibly cruel cuts that I don’t feel need to be made,” Bremberg said. She criticized the council for agreeing to fund a number of “non-essential items,” such as various consultants’ fees and $300,000 to remodel the city’s executive offices, while hourly jobs are cut.

“Come on, they’re all people who have families,” Bremberg said of the temporary workers.

“It’s a very sobering process,” concurred City Manager David H. Ramsay, “and there are a significant number of services that are left unfunded.”

The largest cut--about $1 million--is proposed for the Public Works Department’s $16-million budget, division director Kerry L. Morford said.

The proposed budget would lay off seven temporary workers and eliminate 12 vacant positions out of the 101 previously allotted to his division.

Morford said his department a decade ago would take about nine years “to complete one repair cycle of all the sidewalks throughout the entire city.” Now, with the elmininated positions and the other funding cuts, it would take about 29 years, he said.

Two other city divisions--library services and parks and recreation--would be cut $129,500 and $252,700, respectively.

Even the Glendale Police Department will feel the budget crunch. Earlier this year, Police Chief James E. Anthony said the department had planned to use state funds hire a sergeant and four officers to man a special juvenile detail. But those plans were scrapped, he said, when the budget shortfall became apparent. The department now plans to use some of the state funds to pay for the 11 officers added to the city force after passage of the 1994 crime bill, Anthony said.

To close the preliminary budget shortfall, the council in the last two weeks has agreed on $3.5 million in cuts and another $2.6 million in increased revenues, most of which would come from higher property and sales tax collections. Council members have spent more than 31 hours in nine budget sessions, including a seven-hour marathon last week, over the last two months.