The City Council and executive staff met Saturday morning in a strategic planning session aimed at prioritizing the city’s limited resources after announcing a $2.1 million revenue shortfall.
Council members meet annually for a strategic planning session to set their long-term goals. In past years, the City Council held the meeting at a local hotel and hired a private consultant to mediate the session. The meetings were barely noticed by constituents.
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Council members directed staff to focus their efforts on finding ways to balance the city’s budget and keep the city financially stable in the future. But as Half Moon Bay leaders sought to find ways to correct the budget imbalance, they faced criticism from city employees and members of the public who didn’t want a repeat of last year’s layoffs.
Council members needed to cut $1.75 million during last year’s budget season, a situation caused by both the economic recession and the city’s $18 million Beachwood obligation. That shortfall led to a decision to eliminate 16 employees, approximately one third of the city workforce.
The layoffs were coupled with a reorganization of City Hall, which included centralizing more responsibilities in the city’s administrative team. The city manager eventually hired two new full-time administrative employees — a move that angered some in other departments.
At the Saturday meeting, city officials acknowledged that City Hall was suffering from short staffing and low morale, but they said there remained a strong sense of teamwork.
Speaking on behalf of a group of city employees, Associate Planner Sean Gallegos urged the City Council to examine any upcoming cuts in a transparent manner.
“We’re concerned with how (the City Council) handles this budget process. This is just like last year,” he said. “Our concern is that budget decisions will be made without collaboration with employees.”
Gallegos and his colleagues are requesting expense documents for all the city’s executive staff, and they plan to closely scrutinize the council’s actions in the coming weeks.
Council members also heard complaints from local builders who said the city’s Planning Department has become muddled with slow turnaround and redundant steps. Local resident Kevin Palmer argued the problem was a new practice initiated after the layoffs to hire a private company to help handle the building-permit process.
“I’ve gotten plans kicked back six times!” Palmer said. “There once was a competent Building Department here, but we don’t have that anymore.”
Speaking to the council, city administrative assistant Christine West agreed with Palmer, saying she felt guilty for always having to be the city’s point person at the City Hall front desk when dealing with frustrated builders.
“It’s kind of out of control,” she said. “If we want revenues to keep decreasing, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”
Council members voiced cautious support for ideas to boost revenue in the future, such as implementing parking fees at Poplar Beach, increasing the sales tax, or passing a new tax measure on property owners or utilities.
“Whatever we do, it’ll be a combination of things,” Mayor Marina Fraser said. “It could be a package of different options looking at resources and service models of the city. It could be taxes.”
Any new tax measure would likely be too late to help the city deal with the current budget deficit, but it could provide more revenue for future years, officials said.
City staff also recommended more promotion for local hotels and businesses to garner more tax dollars from tourism. Councilman Allan Alifano recommended the city further investigate forming a business improvement district as a way to help local commerce.
But lacking many immediate options, elected officials indicated that some cuts were imminent.
“If anyone has actionable ways to help solve this, I’d be thrilled to hear it,” said Councilman Rick Kowalczyk.
City staff plan to summarize their notes from the all-day session in the coming days.
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