Council Approves Clerk Agreement With Garden Grove

The Fountain Valley City Council unanimously approved an agreement Tuesday night with the City of Garden Grove to share the services of that city's clerk for eight hours a week at a cost of about $85 per hour.

"It's a good deal," City Manager Ray Kromer said. "It's a win-win for the City of Garden Grove and the City of Fountain Valley. We have a very capable deputy city clerk, so all we're looking for is for someone to come in and see where we're going."

Though he eventually voted in favor of the agreement, Mayor Steve Nagel was originally opposed to it, citing concerns about taking an important full-time position within the city government and essentially reducing it to one day a week.

"It's my feeling that [the city clerk position] requires a good person to keep track of what takes place," Nagel said. "Making such a drastic change, I think we could be setting ourselves up for litigation tht would be much more costly than any money we could save on this deal."

Kromer assured the council that the agreement was designed to be very flexible, and that, should the city's needs change, it could go back to employing a clerk of its own, either part time or full time.

The council also appoved the 2011-12 fiscal year action plan for the city's Community Action Block Grant money. Housing Coordinator Brent Hoff explained to the council that budgeting has been a difficult process because the Department of Housing and Urban Development hasn't release the funds yet, forcing estimates to be used. He estimated that the city would have about $414,000 available, down about $63,000 from last year.

Of the money estimated to be available, about $58,000 will be used for administration, with $125,000 going toward Americans With Disabilities Act compliance projects and another $7,500 going to the senior center.