City's Finances in Relatively Good Shape, City Manager Says

Redondo Beach's budget has "stabilized," said during Tuesday night's sparsely attended budget forum.

According to Workman, the city managed to avoid a multimillion dollar deficit this year because Proposition 22, which protects local governments' revenue, passed at the state level; city employees agreed to a 6 percent salary cap; and the city did not fill certain vacant positions.

"Tough choices had to be made," he said.

The city has not had to dip into its reserves, which make up slightly more than 8.33 percent of the general fund, Workman said, noting that the City Council has been very conservative with this year's budget.

Nevertheless, he said the Public Employee Retirement System was "frankly, out of control," and the city was addressing the required spending by speaking with public employee associations about creating tiered retirement plans.

"We need to have a defined contribution program" instead of a defined benefit program, Workman said.

In a defined benefit program, a person receives a preset amount in a  of money upon retirement; however, in a defined contribution program, such as a 401(k) plan, a company contributes a preset amount of money to an account. The amount paid out upon retirement depends on factors like inflation and the stock market.

Redondo Beach is also trying to reduce its PERS obligation by hiring more part-time employees and using contractors, Workman said.

Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget, however, will only negatively affect the city, Workman said.

"Our school district will be severely injured by the budget," barring a "miraculous compromise," he said.

Ultimately, the city is in a relatively good financial state, but economists have predicted the city probably won't make a complete recovery until at least 2013, Workman said.

The budget was not the only topic of discussion. Redondo Beach's status as a , the and were all talked about.

Only about a half-dozen people showed up at the council chambers for the forum. The low turnout is not unusual for these sorts of events, especially because there was no official City Council meeting, officials said.

If the agenda item was "taking somebody's parking space," the council chambers would be full of people, said , who attended the beginning of the forum.

, did not attend.

The event was broadcast on television and live streamed on Redondo Beach's official website.