SEAL BEACH : Reductions in Budget Spur Recreation Director to Quit

Parks and Recreation Director Andy Seymour, formerly a summer lifeguard in the city for more than 20 years, has resigned in the face of cost-cutting moves that were expected to eliminate his job.

“We want to bring his position under another management-level supervisor,” Mayor Marilyn Bruce Hastings said. “We are on a conservative path toward fiscal responsibility.”

City officials say they are concerned that the recent state Supreme Court ruling upholding Proposition 62 could have a negative effect on the city’s $11-million operating budget.

Proposition 62, approved by voters in 1986, requires that taxes for general purposes be approved by a majority of voters and that taxes for special uses get a two-thirds voter majority.

Even though charter cities such as Seal Beach are thought to be exempt from the ruling, Councilman George Brown said anti-tax advocates may use the court ruling to try to repeal the city’s 11% utility tax. It is the highest utility tax in the county but excludes cable television and water bills.

“It’s just a matter of time until charter cities are affected,” Brown said. “We must find a way to make our city operate most cost-effectively.”

Seymour has been credited with organizing a number of events that generated funds for the city, including the Great Stingray Fishout contest last summer, an attempt to reduce the number of barb-tailed bottom fish that congregate off local beaches.