Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/budget/)
The City of Westminster faces a political “perfect storm” this year, with upcoming recalls for elected officials and lawsuits involving the police department — not to mention tough choices between higher sales taxes or cuts to public services, and finding a new city manager.
Santa Ana spends more money arresting young people than developing them positively through libraries, mentorship, job skills and other initiatives, according to a new study commissioned by health advocates.
Following the ouster of City Manager David Cavazos, expect changes in how the police department is managed, budget dollars are allocated, and the kind of leader the city will have atop its bureaucracy.
After a contentious meeting packed with residents and employees in support of putting a tax increase before voters, the City Council voted to approve the ballot measure on the condition that any tax increase expire after six years.
True self-government means knowing how your local public dollars are being spent. Some in Orange County clearly get that as evidenced by the attendance at county Auditor-Controller Eric Woolery’s “Accounting for Activists” training.
We sat down with top county budget officials to go over the proposed spending plan, and here are our takeaways.
The city’s plans to spend millions on a private tennis center have outraged Latino activists and Mayor Tom Tait. “It just doesn’t seem to go away,” Tait said of the project that he was able to nix from the budget in 2013.
Last June, supervisors Shawn Nelson and Todd Spitzer expressed serious concern at the high prices charged to inmates for phone calls. But five months (and two maxed-out campaign contributions) later, their concern seemingly melted away.
Westminster has hired local government finance consultant Irwin Bornstein to help resolve budget issues after its last finance director was fired for a budget miscalculation.
The county planned for having more than $60 million in extra discretionary money, and about half of it was provided to two departments: the sheriff and district attorney, amid salary and benefit increases for their staff.