City tells committee PSVS money increasingly dedicated to personnel
Bakersfield city leaders are looking at a harsh reality: More and more of the city's annual Public Safety and Vital Services dollars are going to dedicated costs each year, leaving the city with less money to spend on discretionary items.
On Thursday, city staff presented a recommended $114.9 million budget to the Public Safety Vital Services Measure Oversight Committee, noting that amount of dollars in the budget was allocated to pre-dedicated costs.
"We've seen increases in insurance, we've seen increases in workers' compensation. We've seen increases in vehicle equipment, other equipment and technology," City Manager Christian Clegg told the committee.
"We've seen dramatic increases that are actually many instances greater than the typical (Consumer Price Index) percentage that is driving costs in a way that's becoming a challenge for us."
Personnel expenses make up 54% of the budget at $62.2 million. Other expenses include $9.6 million in non-discretionary costs, $22.9 in discretionary expenses, $1.2 million for capital projects and $11.9 in transfers to the General Fund to cover operational needs.
At the meeting, several committee members expressed concern about the use of the PSVS money, saying the city should be more conservative with the tax dollars.
Members said PSVS dollars weren't being used as advertised in the ballot language and expressed particular concern about the amount of non-public-safety staff the city had hired.
"Then you're talking about new parks and all this. It just seems like the concern about tightening up, it's got to be broad-based," said member for Ward 6, Cathy Abernathy. "I'm concerned that there's a whole lot of staff; that's staff, that's health care, that's pensions."
Clegg told the committee hiring freezes were implemented in several departments and the city was investing in better data analytics tools to identify efficiencies.
Staff did reduce discretionary spending by 14%, mainly from economic and community development.
The proposed budget also includes an additional $7.8 million reserved for capital projects to be approved by the Bakersfield City Council.
The total discretionary allotment for the PSVS money, including the amount for capital projects, represents just 26.7% of the PSVS budget.
Ward 3 member Clayton Campbell said that because Measure N's ballot language stated the purpose of the tax was to raise $50 million, particularly for public safety, any additional PSVS tax collected by the city should be moved to savings.
Meeting materials said 374 staff positions were funded by PSVS dollars, the majority of which were in public safety. When asked by committee members at the meeting, staff estimated about 175 of those positions, only 46%, were in public safety.
"We've consistently spent almost all of that money every year, transferred some to the general fund because the general fund couldn't be balanced otherwise, hired a huge number of people," Campbell said to Clegg. "So, the majority of the $62 million that is, as you term, non-discretionary, using the PSVS money, that's money that we're hiring other people that are not public safety."
The city later provided staffing information to the Californian which said 216 positions funded by PSVS were in either the police or fire departments.
According to the city, staffing positions covered with PSVS dollars include 189 positions in the police department; 27 in the fire department; 46 in development services, including code enforcement and homeless encampment clean up; 40 in parks, including 21 park rangers; 22 in technology services; 16 in economic and community development; 13 in public works; 12 in the City Manager's office; five in human resources and two in finance.
Committee members repeatedly expressed concern that PSVS dollars were not being used as advertised to voters.
The text of the 2018 Measure N ballot measure read: "To prevent cuts/improve 911 emergency response, police/fire protection, anti-gang/drug units, neighborhood police patrols; rapid response to assaults, robberies, gang violence, home burglaries; crime prevention; address homelessness; retain, attract jobs/businesses; unrestricted general revenue purposes; shall the measure be adopted approving an ordinance establishing a one-cent sales tax providing $50,000,000 until ended by voters, requiring independent audits, citizens oversight, all funds for Bakersfield?"
Major capital projects on staff's recommended budget include $4 million for street improvements along 18th and 19th streets and $3 million for improvements on H Street. Several other smaller projects are recommended at several city parks and fire stations.
This year's recommended budget is a 1% increase from last year, even as the actual share of sales and use tax money going to the fund went down. The increase in the budget is due to a $17 million savings rollover from prior years being allocated for budget expenditures, Finance Director Randy McKeegan said.
Revenues from sales tax have either remained flat or declined across several industries, McKeegan said, and the city was looking at a roughly $6.5 million decrease in tax revenues as a result of county residents incorrectly paying taxes to the city for the past two years.
The budget will ultimately be approved by the city council, but the oversight committee will have the opportunity to give its own recommendations at its next meeting Thursday.
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