Hermosa Beach City Council on Thursday, Oct. 6 will discuss cutting the city budget by 10 percent, through means such as outsourcing more jobs, offering more early retirement incentives, identifying services that can be cut, and issuing bonds to pay off some of its pension funds.
The council at its 7 p.m. meeting will chew over a report it directed City Manager Steve Burrell to prepare, with a variety of budget cutting possibilities.
At the suggestion of Councilman Michael DiVirgilio, the council in June directed Burrell to study a 10 percent overall reduction to the city’s $26 million budget, with at least 2.5 percent coming from workers’ salaries and benefits.
DiVirgilio has brought up the possibility of city pay cuts at a number of council meetings.
Burrell wrote that “a 10 percent cost reduction without reducing services represents a significant challenge.”
Burrell’s report recommends seeking “personnel cost reductions” in contract negotiations with the city’s employee associations, outsourcing parking and animal control services, offering early retirement packages which already have been accepted by 11 city employees, issuing pension bonds, and studying outsourcing operation of the community theater, city jail and some city engineering.
The report also recommends studying the possibility of consolidating some police, fire and recreation programming services with other municipalities.
Some city department heads contributing to the report cautioned that cuts could hamper the services provided by the city.
A 10 percent cut to the Police Department workforce could be achieved by eliminating two officers, one detective, one sergeant and five other positions, but that could entail limiting investigations of misdemeanor crimes, or eliminating investigations of thefts under $10,000, Chief Greg Savelli said. In addition, non-injury traffic collisions, unverified alarms going off, and barking dog calls could go unanswered.
Hermosa Beach in recent years has eliminated 17 employee positions, negotiated salary freezes for employees, and became the first area city to negotiate a two-tier pension system in which new employees receive leaner benefits.
The city also has $14 million in unfunded pension liabilities, according to a cautionary report by a Los Angeles County civil grand jury.
