Public can comment at June 29 meeting

While the state grapples with a projected $19 billion deficit and other cities and agencies slash away at budgets already bloody with red ink, Clayton will plod into the next fiscal year flat-lined – and with no cut to services.

In his budget report to the City Council on June 15, City Manager Gary Napper likened Clayton to the turtle in the race against the hare. The city has always been lean, Napper said, displaying fiscal restraint even in the mid-decade heyday of big tax revenues and unbridled consumer spending.

“While the finish line is never reached for municipalities,” he said, “this turtle is not out of breath or relatively out of money.”

Reserve Maintained.

At $3.66 million, the general fund accounts for 25 percent of the city’s total proposed budget of $14.6 million. The general fund budget, which covers city operations including law enforcement, is essentially the same as last year’s $3.64 million.

A property tax base less volatile than other Bay Area cities, a 2 percent increase in sales tax revenues and $239,306 in cuts in personnel costs helped keep the gap between revenues and expenses to a mere $18,410. Interest earnings from a trust account will cover the shortfall.

According to Napper, the city’s reserve for contingencies of $5.1 million puts Clayton in an enviable position relative to other small cities in the state.

The coming year will see several major improvement projects, including $842,000 for street repaving and $492,000 for expansion of the Community Park parking lot – which will provide 100 additional parking spaces for the heavily used park and ball fields.

With the lifting of water use restrictions by the Contra Costa Water District, the city will begin to restore landscaping that succumbed to the drought. The highest priority will be given to the area surrounding the Clayton fountain.

Impacted by state grabs.

The Redevelopment Agency budget has been severely pummeled by shrinking property tax revenues, state “sleight of hand” take-aways and debt service.

Redevelopment Agency funds come from incremental increases in property taxes as real estate values go up. Affordable housing programs get 20 percent of these incremental revenues and the rest is available for economic development and urban renewal projects.

In fiscal year 2008-’09, the state appropriated $350 million from local redevelopment agencies – Clayton’s share of this grab was $405,000. Then in May 2009, Clayton coughed up another $2 million, covering the payment with $1.4 million from the capital improvement budget and borrowing the rest from the city’s affordable housing fund.

These hits – combined with the debt service of previous bond issues, declining property values and increasing expenses – have left the Redevelopment Agency upside down by $338,510 and the fund balance at only $1,019,561.

In recent years, redevelopment money has paid for construction of the public parking lot next to Endeavor Hall and to acquire the land for the Flora Square building and the Creekside Terrace project currently before the Planning Commission.

The city has scheduled a special meeting for 7 p.m. June 29 at the library to hear public comments on the proposed budget.

Complete budget information and Napper’s report are available at www.ci.clayton.ca.us. From the home page, click on Agendas and Minutes, then on June 15.