Streamlining government helps budget

For more than a year Costa Mesa has been in various stages of turmoil regarding its financial well-being.

Throughout the fiscal year that ended June 30, the city manager and senior staff tried to take steps to ease the impact of declining municipal revenues while still maintaining sufficient levels of service.

Initially it was anticipated that it would take about $6.5 million in fund balance dollars to balance the budget. However, the reality of what was happening to the economy forced city management to eventually draw nearly $15 million from that account.

For the fiscal year 2009-10, Allan Roeder and his staff put together a creative, practical, balanced budget, which was presented to the City Council on June 16.

The majority on the council, led by Gary Monahan, apparently felt that a balanced budget was not enough and attempted to rip the skin from the already-emaciated carcass of the recreation division by slashing youth recreation programs. Fortunately, some of those were restored at a subsequent meeting when Katrina Foley and Wendy Leece led the way in identifying sources of private contributions.

In the meantime, because business is as slow in our government as it is in private industry, it has been decided that our Parks and Recreation Commission will now meet only every other month � which means six times a year if they begin in January. Those commissioners receive $100 per meeting as a stipend for their service to the city � $3,000 for the year, total.

The Planning Commission has decided to meet only once per month instead of twice because the workload normally flowing to that body has dropped off significantly. Those commissioners receive a stipend of $400 per month, regardless of the number of meetings they attend. No mention has been made of any plan to reduce that amount.

I suggest that the Parks and Recreation Commission be disbanded, the commissioners offered our sincere thanks for their service to our city and their responsibilities be shifted to the Planning Commission. The savings in the stipends from the Parks and Recreation commissioners could be diverted to any number of recreation-oriented uses.

The planning commissioners are already going to be paid for their time, regardless of the number of meetings they attend.

This doesn’t even have to be a permanent change. The Parks and Recreation Commission could be temporarily disbanded, but could be reinstated at some future date, depending on the economy and the fiscal condition of the city.

There is precedent for such a move. A couple of years ago the City Council summarily slammed the door on the Human Relations Commission after it served the city for nearly two decades.

Some of the planning commissioners may feel that performing the work done by Parks and Recreation is demeaning � below their pay grade, so to speak.

Well, if that’s the case, they can either suck it up for the good of the city or step aside and let the City Council appoint members who are willing to accept that assignment.

It seems to me that disbanding the Parks and Recreation Commission is a plan worth some discussion, and I hope one or more members of the City Council will feel it’s worth the time to investigate.

GEOFF WEST lives in Costa Mesa.