As Irvine grapples with a structural budget deficit that could reach nearly $40 million in less than two years, leaders won’t be reviewing previous spending with a formal audit process beyond typical city review.
Council members have spent the greater part of this year discussing how they’re going to dodge the deficit — so far, leaders plan to increase revenue and decrease spending by eliminating vacant positions, increasing a slew of fees and canceling certain city-sponsored events.
While council members previously asked staff to provide cost estimates to audit certain previous spending decisions, leaders voted unanimously during their Tuesday night meeting to continue without any formal audits.
Staff members were asking city leaders if they wanted to pursue a level 2 audit for how they spent federal COVID-19 funding and a level 3 audit for the city’s proposed gondola Great Park transportation project known as Swyft Cities (Whoosh).
Estimated costs for the level 2 audit were $25,000 to $90,000 and estimated costs for the level 3 audit were $50,000 to $140,000.
The city’s budget is estimated to reach an annual $37 million deficit by July 1, 2028 and could increase to $47 million by the end of the decade if spending doesn’t slow down.
City staff is pursuing long-term budget adjustments that decrease spending by $27 million and increase revenue by $10 million by 2028 to try and get the city back on track.
During this week’s meeting, council members said they don’t want to spend more money reviewing what’s happened in the past.
“It doesn’t look like we want to spend more money on going back, which I can completely agree with that, knowing what we are dealing with right now,” Councilmember Melinda Liu said at the meeting.
“I’m fine with stopping right here and not throwing any more money at this.”
Councilmember Kathleen Treseder said she plans to bring a new proposal specifically reviewing and potentially canceling the Swyft Cities project, which would create gondola sky pods in the Great Park.
“I intend to bring that back later with another agenda item — that’s fully memo’ed,” Treseder said at the meeting. “At the time that I intend to bring it back, it will be more to reconsider whether the Swyft Cities project would move forward.”
The council’s vote from Tuesday also directed staff to provide the public with the federal audit findings regarding COVID-19 funding. Staff said Irvine was in compliance with those federal reviews.
Staff also presented level 1 reviews for six different city matters.
For these reviews, staff compiled basic information summarizing spending through existing city records. A detailed review, including a compliance review, would require an audit beyond level 1.
Staff said those six level 1 reviews aren’t audits. Instead, they were a production of records for those six areas.
“I want to thank the city staff for going through all of these documents,” Liu said.
“It’s a production of documents and records, and maybe calling it an audit is a misnomer and setting the wrong expectations. This is government transparency at its best, right? We’re publishing all the information and have it all ready for the residents to see how their tax dollars are being spent.”
Susan Sayer, 45-year Irvine resident who attended the council meeting on her birthday, asked the council to pursue audits, especially regarding the Great Park.
She also said leaders should ditch the Great Park gondola project.
“I support an extensive professional audit of city projects, particularly the Great Park projects,” Sayer said at the meeting.
“The project that I believe needs to be abandoned of whatever cost is the Swyft Cities Whoosh gondola project for the Great Park. My reasons are, it’s inefficient. Great Park venues and events attract great numbers of people, and gondolas each carry relatively few people.”
Some residents questioned the point of the level 1 reviews.
“I do think the purpose of this is to review what happened in the past and look forward to what we can do to make changes,” Councilmember Liu said.
