Petaluma city council to weigh $184M budget

he city of Petaluma is looking to budget for a new ambulance and crew, some badly needed building repairs, a big-ticket sewage plant upgrade and a handful of new hires in the coming fiscal year.|

The city of Petaluma is looking to budget for a new ambulance and crew, some badly needed building repairs, a big-ticket sewage plant upgrade and a handful of new hires in the coming fiscal year, part of a spending plan that largely holds the line after years of budgetary austerity.

A proposed budget of $184.6 million for the 12-month period starting July 1 represents a 12.8 percent increase from the current fiscal year, a bump the city largely attributed to capital projects. The Petaluma City Council discussed the draft budget this week and could adopt a final budget on May 16.

City Manager John Brown noted during the presentation that much of the increased spending involves revenue-generating operations, which helps offset the higher expenditures. General fund spending, which pays for services like police and fire departments, accounts for 3.4 percent of the overall increase.

A projected $1.4 million shortfall in revenue for the fiscal year to come makes it likely that the city will need to draw on more of a dwindling working capital reserve in order to continue current funding levels, even after the recent recession has already prompted massive cuts to many of those core operations, Brown told the City Council.

“I really feel like we’ve done what we can do on the expense side,” he said. “We’re at a tipping point here where if we cut any more into our core level of service, we’re really going to have to make some decisions as to what we don’t do anymore.”

The largest single capital project on the proposed budget is a $12.4 million upgrade to the Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility, work that will allow the plant to better handle the byproducts of local food and beverage producers. The money comes from funds associated with the revenue and operation of the plant.

Funding for ambulances is planned to increase by 74.7 percent, to $455,250, as the city gets set to add a third ambulance to its fleet. Salaries and benefits will rise by around $500,000 in order to pay for a part-time crew and accommodate higher retirement costs across the department in general.

The ambulance crew will allow Petaluma to capture approximately 500 calls lost to outside ambulance companies each year, according to Petaluma Fire Department Chief Leonard Thompson. Those calls could generate a low estimate of $500 per call in income from insurers, which could result in a significant income even if only half of patients are able to pay.

“I think it’s a policy decision we should have made 20 years ago,” said Councilman Gabe Kearney.

Nearly $1.2 million will go toward repairs to city buildings, including roof replacements for Petaluma’s three fire stations and City Hall. Previous water damage to the Petaluma Community Center at Lucchesi Park, which occurred due to a lack of funds to fully repair a roof several years ago, will be repaired, and all but $100,000 of the work will come from special taxes paid by those staying in Petaluma hotels.

Salary expenditures are proposed to rise by $379,000, due in part to the hiring of a new park maintenance worker, an engineering technician and the ambulance staff – positions whose costs will be entirely offset by generated revenue. The increase also accounts for compensation bumps approved for some city workers, with benefits set to rise by $836,000 as employer contribution costs rise for some employee retirement plans.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.