Five Minutes: What the City Budget Means to You

With drops in consumer spending and closures of local car dealerships leading to a reduction in sales tax revenue, the City Council has had to dip into its reserves for $2 million to cover half of an approximately $4-million deficit—with the rest made up through cuts to staffing and services, including the fire and police departments. And the problem is not going away. Structural deficits and not just operational funding problems will continue to plague the city, Councilman Scott Malsin said. Patch sat down with him to get the scoop:

Culver City Patch: In the city budget, it said that 60 positions were cut citywide. How did that shake out?

Councilman Scott Malsin: The cuts were across the board. Thirty of them were positions that had been vacant, 14 people were offered early retirement and 16 were eliminated. We still have a $2-million gap this year, which we filled by dipping into the city reserves. I object to that. Next year, the $2 million will be there and it will keep growing unless we take steps to reduce these deeper structural problems.

Patch: What problems?

Malsin: States across the nation are having a problem with pension and medical costs. Our serious long-term problems include retiree medical benefit costs and other post-employment benefits (OPEB). Public agencies have not been required to account on their books for the promises of the retiree medical benefits for their employees.

We have a pay as you go system. We pay this year for the medical costs of our current employees and current retirees. The number of retirees from Culver City is going up, and the costs are going up for them.

We have a substantial obligation that is growing and growing, and we're not setting enough aside to cover it. It is an absolute tidal wave. If we don't get a handle on it now, we will find ourselves in incredibly deep trouble before too long.

Patch: What about services like tree trimming?

Malsin: We are going to be eliminating some of the staff in-house that provides on-call service for tree trimming. We will still provide emergency services. But if it's not an emergency, I won't be surprised if it takes a bit more time between the time someone calls and the time a crew gets there. It will still be far better than what other cities may experience.

Patch: What would you like to say to the residents of Culver City, in light of all these changes?

Malsin: This year, people are not probably going to be aware of the impact of these cuts. I think we will still be able to provide the caliber of police and fire services that people have come to expect. We will have some trouble filling potholes, some trouble taking care of our parks. We are not going to be sending out Culver City Living through the mail. If you call the city attorney's office, there will be less staff to do the research that our attorney depends on. For the average person, this is the way that they will feel the cuts.

I really want our parks to be staffed; I want to see more staff. I want to see resources devoted to fixing our streets. The positions that are eliminated are ones that are devoted to fixing those things. These cuts will take their toll over time.

That's the crucial fact to bear in mind.

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