Mayor remains upbeat about recovery
Mayor Mike Gin at Monday morning’s annual State of the City address. Photo A photo at the beginning of Mayor Gin’s “State of the City” slideshow Monday morning showed a throng of people on a sailboat beneath the title of mayor’s address: “Pulling Together: On Course for Recovery.” If this was a before-and-after kind of shot, it might have showed the same boat with a few less people, and those remaining dipping oars in the water. The city of Redondo Beach in the last year endured difficult economic times, requiring employee layoffs and an across-the-board six percent pay cut that was voluntarily accepted by all those who remained. Gin acknowledged as much as he outlined the $10 million dollars that has been trimmed from the city’s budget since the economic downturn began. Those reductions include $4 million in salary cuts, $3.7 in program cuts, and $2.3 million in staff positions eliminated. “This is $10 million in savings, and the numbers you are seeing don’t really show you the complete picture,” Gin said early in his address. “They don’t show the sacrifices that were made by our city staff.” Another slide showed a projected $500,000 dip in property tax revenue – the first…
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