A split Fullerton City Council couldn’t agree on a special tax to fix their crumbling roads or collapsing budget as recall efforts begin against the mayor and one councilwoman, but they all agreed on one thing – they’ve lost public trust.
“Accountability has to start with transparency,” said Councilman Ahmad Zahra, who supported asking voters for a sales tax measure that failed in 2020. “Knowing what I know and what I’ve experienced, what you’ve all seen, I don’t know if I can in good conscience ask you for more money at this time.”
At their Tuesday meeting, a majority of council members also moved forward with a series of spending cuts that include defunding vacant staff positions in an effort to buoy the budget for a few more years.
For years, Fullerton has faced bleak budget outlooks as officials have struggled to balance the books.
The breakdown in trust comes as residents raise complaints over the city’s misallocation of millions of dollars that led to staff overestimating their general fund reserves, which are dropping to dangerously low levels, prompting a series of last-minute cuts to try and right size the budget.
[Read: Fullerton to Defund Staff Positions and Consider Sales Tax Increase to Curb Deficit]
Now, Mayor Fred Jung and Councilwoman Jamie Valencia are also the targets of a recall effort, with many residents sharing they’ve lost trust in city leadership.
“If you’d only listened to us along the way…you would not be sitting in this position,” said one resident at the meeting. “If you love this city, if you honestly think you want the best for this city, you would do what is right and step down.”
Split Council Shoots Down Tax to Fix Roads
One of the proposals to help fix the problem was a new 0.5% sales tax increase aimed at patching up the city’s failing roads, which are ranked the worst in the county according to a staff presentation.
But multiple city council members brought up concerns that the increased tax revenue would instead be used to help give raises to city workers or support the general fund instead of fixing streets, with Zahra saying they couldn’t “just ask people and hope they say yes” at the last minute.
“There is no transparency in this city,” Zahra said. “Accountability has to start with transparency and setting policies and trust has to be built over time cause it has been eroded over time.”
“We’ve got a three decade history of tax increases not going to our streets, but labor costs,” said Councilman Nick Dunlap.
Valencia said that while she supports a future tax increase, the lack of public trust made it impossible for now.
“The negative publicity that keeps going around is making it worse,” Valencia said.
Several public commenters echoed similar concerns about their lack of trust in city hall, with some questioning whether the city would use the extra infrastructure money as an excuse to dump out of their existing spending and put it toward city staff salaries.
“This idea that this tax is for infrastructure is a joke,” said resident Joshua Ferguson during public comment. “Do your jobs and then maybe beg for more money out of our pockets.”
Jung said that he agreed with the concerns over public trust, but that they need the money – reversing his earlier position against sales tax increases.
“I’ve gotten to the point I’m supportive of any tax,” Jung said. “We’re looking over what looks like a fiscal cliff.”
Councilwoman Shana Charles was the most vocal supporter of the tax increase, saying they can’t look at the past mistakes and have to move on with addressing the problem.
“The public wants us to do something about this problem,” Charles said. “I think the polling shows we have a shot.”
Council members shot down putting a tax on the ballot, meaning the soonest they could ask the voters for a new tax increase will now be the 2028 election – about a year before Fullerton is expected to be in the red again.
Deficit Leads to Gutting Maintenance and Staff
City Council members also narrowly voted to move forward with a new budget that cuts nearly three dozen open positions from the city’s staff, meaning they won’t be hiring people to replace the vacant jobs.
It’s estimated that the city can stave off a deficit for roughly three years under the proposed budget plan, assuming they don’t grant their staff any raises or face any unexpected complications.
In the agenda report, city staff note that it’s the “the only option that achieves a structurally balanced General Fund over the next three fiscal years. This option has the greatest impact on City services but provides the most sustainable long-term financial solution.”
Most of the defunded vacancies come from Fullerton’s public works department, which is losing 10 open staff positions, along with six police officers and one deputy fire chief.
The shift is also cutting back several services at the city’s Hunt Library and reducing security at city facilities.
The final budget vote isn’t set to get adopted until next month – long past the July 1 deadline.
Charles and Zahra voted against the shift, highlighting concerns about cutting city services, and questioning why they couldn’t use some of the city’s existing reserves along with cuts to help reduce the fiscal bleeding.
“I find it galling to have millions of dollars in reserves when we have horrible city services,” Charles said. “I can’t stomach sitting on millions.”
But Mayor Jung and Councilmembers Valencia and Dunlap said it was a necessary step to give the city more time, highlighting that even with those cuts it would only keep them stable for around another three years without giving any of their staff salary increases.
“I think it’s really the only choice tonight,” Dunlap said. “I don’t think we can be as short sighted as just thinking about one year out.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
