Playing chicken with Pacifica's population

The city budget crisis has been in process 10 years, and the "bedroom community" excuse ended then.  

Mercury News/Julia Scott, 5/4/11.  City officials were caught by surprise last month when an overwhelming majority of Pacificans rejected a fire assessment that would have buoyed the city's sagging finances and kept two firefighters and a battalion chief on duty. It was the cornerstone of a four-year recovery plan that would rescue the city from an astounding $14 million shortfall between now and 2014-15.Now the bedroom community has to cut its way to stability, and it's going to be a nightmare, according to city staff.  City Council members are preparing to cut $1.5 million, in part by eliminating nearly 20 positions, as they race to balance Pacifica's budget by July 1. 

"The scariest part is, this year, we're cutting bone. Next year, we'll have to cut a limb off," Police Capt. Dave Bertini said. The Police Department must cut 10 percent of its budget, or $634,519, by July. That means six police dispatchers could be let go as the city negotiates a contract to outsource police dispatch services to South San Francisco. The force stands at 36 sworn officers to police a city of 37,234, down from 48 officers in the mid-1980s, according to Bertini.

Other proposed layoffs include the city attorney, whose duties would be outsourced, a clerk, an account technician, two firefighters and public works and recreation staffers. The city would withdraw its funding of Pacifica's two libraries, which would have to cut back their hours. "There's going to be less access, which is not a good thing -- we have a lot of people coming here to do job retraining, apply for employment, apply for schooling," Pacifica libraries manager Thom Ball said. "Access to the Internet is critical for these folks, and I deal with them every day."

But that's only the beginning. Pacifica will need to cut another $2 million in 2011-12, since leaders have abandoned hope of passing a proposed utility-users tax in November 2012."People have said they don't want to pay more and they can't afford more," City Manager Steve Rhodes said. The city has cobbled together some $1.6 million in savings over the next four years through employee concessions such as a salary freeze and an agreement to pick up their own pension cost increases. The city also gained $640,000 over four years from a hotel-tax increase voters approved in 2010. But it won't nearly be enough. The city will still have to find another $6 million to stay solvent in the long term. If the city were hit with a major earthquake or tsunami today, there wouldn't be enough money in the reserve fund to cover the expenses.

City officials say they have no idea how to bridge that gap. Pacifica may be the sixth-largest city in San Mateo County, but its commercial tax base is fairly weak. It doesn't have the property value of cities like Burlingame, and the city's payroll has been subject to the same pension pressures and local tax restrictions as other California cities. Unlike other cities, like Half Moon Bay, Pacifica is too big to consider outsourcing its police force. 

"It's going to decimate our city in some ways. It means everything is on the table," Mayor Mary Ann Nihart said. "There's only so much you can contract out," she added. "The hard part is to do all this and still keep the community alive." Pacifica will hold its next budget study session May 11. The City Council will likely vote on a final budget June 13.

 Posted by Kathy Meeh