Heeding warnings of a $6 million budget deficit this fiscal year that could balloon to $47 million by 2030, Irvine City Councilmembers this week set a timeline for city staffers to return to the dais with a string of proposed solutions.
Irvine’s growing population — 40,641 new residents in the last five years, according to a presentation to the council on Tuesday, May 5 — “coupled with costs from new facilities, infrastructure and increased demand for public safety and city services,” contributed to the deficit, city officials said. But staffers on Tuesday again called the $6 million a “minor shortfall” and manageable, amounting to a 2% overage of the city’s general fund.
The city manager alerted councilmembers to the overage in March, and Councilmember James Mai pushed for his colleagues to address the shortage before it could grow. But during a discussion in April, the council deadlocked on patching the budget gap.
But during this week’s council meeting, councilmembers voted 4-2, with Mayor Larry Agran and Councilmember Melinda Liu opposed, to support Mai’s 10-point checklist of asks for City Manager Sean Crumby and city staff.
As part of the request, city staff will return to the dais with “long-term budget balancing options before the council considers any new taxes, tax increases or broad fee increases,” Mai said, along with a detailed breakdown of the general fund and expenses, including staffing and labor costs and a “full inventory of discretionary spending.”
The City Council instructed staff to return with three plans for closing the long-term budget gap, to be presented in a side-by-side comparison at a future meeting.
“It’s to get answers that many of us have asked. Many of us are questioning how we got here,” Mai said, adding he doesn’t want city staff to feel “micromanaged.”
Councilmembers Mai and Kathleen Treseder also reiterated concerns about Crumby briefing the mayor first on the budget problem, and as part of that conversation, Agran asked Crumby to research polling on possible local taxes.
“I do have in the back of my head,” Treseder said, “is this what the staff is recommending or have they been instructed or influenced to present it in a different way to us?”
“So it does make me wonder: How much of what we are hearing is from the staff or if it’s indirectly from the mayor,” she said.
“The deck that was presented tonight is 100% mine and everything in it I stand behind,” Crumby said Tuesday night, adding the presentation was sent “to the entire council, all at the same moment.”
Agran called the remarks “unsupported accusations” that “detract from what has otherwise been a useful, constructive process.”
“I do take every opportunity to pose suggestions, ask questions regarding this entire budget matter,” he said, “I would suggest that each and every councilmember avail themselves to every opportunity they have to speak to the city manager, and through the city manager, speak with staff, regarding the budget or any other matters of interest.”
At the tail end of the meeting, Treseder, supported by Councilmembers William Go and Liu, called for a series of independent audits on city spending, which the council plans to consider next week.
If approved, audits could detail “how the federal COVID money was spent from 2021 to 2025;” spending on City Hall renovations; the $700,000 toward a proposed gondola project for the Great Park; severance packages offered to city staff; the purchase of the All American Asphalt Plant; and the establishment of the city’s independent library system.