A vehicle incentive program, traffic signal enhancements, spending about $1 million on 18 new vehicles, parking validations for residents attending city council meetings and using sales tax dollars to study building a park in Washington Square.
These are among some of the services and programs Santa Ana officials want to continue funding or spend taxpayer dollars on next year.
It comes as a looming revenue drop is expected and after the former city manager accused specific elected officials of spearheading a pressure campaign on behalf of the police union for better pay and pensions.
In February, city officials warned that Santa Ana is heading towards a massive drop in revenue in five years when they are expected to lose $30 million in sales taxes as part of a decrease in Measure X, a 1.5% sales tax increase approved in 2018.
It’s a loss that could impact public services like emergency response, fixing streets, graffiti removal and maintaining parks.
[Read: Santa Ana Leaders Warn Looming Sales Tax Cliff Could Tear Up Public Services]
The End of X: Santa Ana is Heading Towards a Sales Tax Cliff
Santa Ana City Council members spent over an hour at their April 2 meeting letting staff know some of the spending priorities they would like to see in the 2024-2025 budget and called on staff to explore ways to increase revenue ahead of the sales tax cliff.
While her colleagues expressed spending priorities, Councilwoman Jessie Lopez said services are likely to get cut in the next couple of years.
“It’s fair to say that we should prepare ourselves for a possible reduction of services across the board, because we are spending more money than we are bringing in,” Lopez said. “For a long time now, some of us have felt that we’re not in a secure financial ground with the budget.”
Last week’s discussion came less than a week after city officials publicly released a legal claim from former City Manager Kristine Ridge, accusing elected officials of going to bat for former police union leader Gerry Serrano and the unions’ interests and pressuring Ridge to boost his pay and pension.
Ridge also accused Mayor Valerie Amezcua of violating the state’s open meeting law and creating a hostile workplace.
Officials quietly settled the claim last October without an investigation into the allegations first and tried to keep the details of it out of the public eye for about six months.
[Read: Why Did Santa Ana Pay Out Over $600K to Settle a Claim Alleging the Police Union Runs City Hall?]
Not once in Tuesday’s debate did officials mention the over $600,000 settlement paid out to Ridge.
The city also spent $600,000 on a special election for a failed recall effort against Lopez that was spearheaded by the police union.
Amezcua voiced support Tuesday for setting aside Measure X dollars for future use “so that when that time comes, we’re not pulling out our hair trying to figure out what to do then.”
She also said public safety and the quality of life for residents should be the top priority for officials.
“Last year, when we went through this, the city manager at one point said, we have no more money, because … council members kept asking and asking and asking, so we have to be responsible and look at the budget and how much money do we have?” Amezcua said.
How Will The City Recover Revenue?
Officials are calling on staff to come back with a plan to address the expected revenue loss expected when Measure X sunsets.
As officials listed off what programs and services they would like to see, Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan said the city doesn’t have the money to do everything city leaders want to do.
“We’re going to have to get realistic,” she said. “We can’t just ask for things, we have to figure out how to pay for them.”
Phan called for staff to bring back a bond that could be used to maintain libraries, parks and the city’s zoo.
“I don’t want us to be back in that hole again where we cannot have green grass because we don’t have the funding to maintain the grass or that we have nasty restrooms that you don’t want to put your kids in and I don’t want to be in because we can’t maintain them the way that we want,” she said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilman Phil Bacerra said Tuesday that the city is in the process of studying building an observatory deck on its iconic water tower and that the city should invest in that project to help generate revenue.
“Once we know that cost, I would like to see that prioritized because I think we all know that would generate revenue. Who doesn’t want to go up on top of our beautiful water tower and look out on Santa Ana and Orange County?” he said.
Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said tax money from cannabis shops should be split up between public works, parks and the police evenly.
“Our police department makes up the most heavily funded department that we have in the city,” he said. “I think it’s time that we balance our budgets.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
