Malibu City Council Presented Preliminary Balanced Budget for Upcoming Fiscal Year

Malibu Asst. City Manager Reva Feldman had a happy story to tell the Malibu City Council at its meeting Monday night as she presented a preliminary balanced budget for the upcoming fiscal year, with $12 million in reserves.

"The budget tells a story of how our city is doing, demonstrates that Malibu is and has been well managed, because fiscal stability takes many years to establish," Feldman said.

General fund revenues will reach $21.9 million, while expenses are estimated at $21.8 million, according to the city staff report Feldman presented the council. The approximate $12 million reserve fund for the 2013-2014 fiscal year is $2.1 million more than what was anticipated last year, the report states.

"These strong reserves have accumulated even while the city has accomplished many major capital projects," Feldman said.

Among the projects the council has funded over recent years listed by Feldman were Legacy Park, Trancas Canyon Park, the acquisition of Bluffs Park and a new City Hall, Las Flores Creek Park, improvements to Cross Creek Road, the Point Dume Safe Routes to School project, new traffic signals, PCH speed advisory signs, improvements to the Solstice Creek Bridge and the Pacific Cove and Civic Center storm water treatment facilities.

The city's major revenue sources comes from property taxes, documentary transfer taxes, a utility user's tax, sales tax and transient occupancy tax.

The council had few questions for Feldman and city staff but offered many congratulations and positive feedback on the work that went into preparing the report.

One question that was raised by Mayor Pro Tem Joan House was why the money allocated for public safety has increased $127,000 from the prior fiscal year. She also inquired from city staff as to what other nearby cities pay for public safety.

"Generally, we are almost double of anybody else as far as policing goes," said City Manager Jim Thorsen. "We average around $6.5 million for police services, Most of the other cities are $3 million for Agoura Hills, and maybe $4 million for Calabasas. Westlake I think is around $2 [million]. So we’re double or triple most of the cities around this region. Comparatively, I think Santa Monica pays around $91 million for their sheriff, or police force."

Councilmember John Siebert offered a further analysis of the public safety numbers.

“Calabasas and Agoura Hills are about twice as big as we are, so on a per capita basis, we are paying about four times as much as other cities,” Siebert said. “But they tend to be fairly compact and they don’t have PCH to deal with. And so that is part of it. But it’s something we have been concerned with. Let’s say its been discussed a number of times.”

Final approval of the 2013 budget will be voted upon at a later council meeting. Check back with Patch for further analysis of the city's budget.

Patch Editor Craig Clough viewed the Monday Malibu City Council meeting online.

Patch Editor Jessica Davis contributed to this report.