Sherman R. Frederick
Marinscope’s Novato Advance
Even in a red-hot real estate market, tough times lay ahead for the City of Novato. The Council spends more than the city makes and if it were not for gifts from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan, the Council would have spent a lot more than the city makes.
That’s the scoop out of the City Council this month. At the meeting on April 12, encouraging financial news came far and few between as city staff outlined the road to recovery.
Budget Director Amy Cunningham, who made her first in-person Council meeting since the pandemic, outlined in a series of slides where the city is now in the budget preparation. Her main point was not lost in the fog of accounting: “Without one-time funds, the deficit would be significantly higher.”
The Council will have another budget meeting on May 10 in which the budget challenges will be brought into sharper focus. The purpose of this meeting was to give the Council a heads-up on the process as it stands now.
After the presentation, Mayor Eric Lucan called on the council members to provide input and ask questions. Some questions the staff could be answered that night. Others will come on May 10.
“I’ll have more questions then,” Councilwoman Pat Eklund promised.
Eklund, the longest serving member of the council who prides herself on knowing the budget inside and out, gave the budget director praise. She said she was glad to get credible answers, unlike the “unprofessional” responses she received under a previous administration before current City Manager Adam McGill.
Eklund also had several suggestions for the budget.
One was that the city set aside some money to improve the technology for continued hybrid meetings. The other was to look for ways to expand Novato’s K-9 unit. It currently has dwindled to a single dog. It used to have three.
“It’s a great program. The officers love it and, frankly, our officers need a lift-up,” she said.
“K-9s save officers’ lives. It’s a great program,” she said.
Mayor Lucan spurred Eklund to wrap up her statements on the budget, which she did.
Mayor Pro Tem Susan Wernick’s remarks were brief. She acknowledged how stressful it has been on staff during the pandemic as they now try to climb out of a budgetary hole.
“It’s incredibly stressful, let’s just put it that way,” she said.
She then asked about the three priorities the staff identified via a questionnaire filled out by 256 members of the public.
“The three top concerns remain public safety, potholes and homelessness, she said.”
A lot of people say “our town is not safe,” she observed, but the facts say differently. While property crimes are up in Novato, our city is “incredibly safe” compared to others.
During the pandemic, many cities were engrossed in a conversation about defunding the police. “Our community was not in support of (that) movement,” she said.
“I think we’re doing a good job (on public safety.).
City Manager McGill, who is also the former police chief for Novato, concurred. “We’re in an age of disinformation,” he said. He also pointed out that police staffing has remained the same for some 20 years – 58 to 61 people – and he thought the city may have been overstaffed 20 years ago, but it is about right today.
“The challenge is to retain our public safety staff,” he told Wernick.
Councilmember Denise Athas focussed on the revenue picture and how it might change during the dramatic real estate boom. Athas is a real estate professional by trade.
“I have seen in the last four months an increase in our housing in Novato of 20 to 30 percent in the pricing. We’re seeing $300,000, $400,000, $500,000 over asking prices on a continual basis,” she said. She added that it is escalating so fast she wonders whether the revenue to the city for property tax today will be accurate when the final budget is written in stone.
Mayor Lucan concluded the study session by asking the staff to come up with a number of “high level” investment ideas to reduce expenses – ways to increase revenue or possibly reducing debt to lower monthly expenses.
The city 2022-2023 budget takes effect July 1.
(You can reach the writer at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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