ESCONDIDO: New budget hikes rec fees, keeps branch library partly open


Following several months of protests and compromises, the Escondido City Council adopted a new budget Wednesday that spares most of the city's recreation programs by hiking fees and keeps the East Valley library branch open as a neighborhood computer lab.

Despite those compromises, more than a dozen residents criticized the council Wednesday for not making recreation and the library branch a higher priority. And two of the speakers said the council's decision would affect their chances of being re-elected.

But the four-member council majority that approved the new $74.4 million budget said the fee hikes and program cuts were necessary to meet their goal of adopting a balanced budget for the first time in five years.

They also pointed out that proposals this winter to close the city's two pools and to completely close the branch library had been abandoned in the face of public protests.

The council majority ---- Mayor Sam Abed, Marie Waldron, Ed Gallo and Mike Morasco ---- blamed the need for cuts and higher rec fees on the economic downturn and higher employee pension costs.

The downturn has lowered annual tax revenue roughly $13 million since 2007, and annual pension costs have risen from $3 million to more than $17 million since 2004.

Councilwoman Olga Diaz, who voted against the new budget, didn't dispute that the city was experiencing a financial crisis.

But she said her colleagues should have prioritized keeping the branch library fully open, which would cost $192,000, and criticized them for wiping out funding for three nonprofits: the History Center, which gets $56,000 per year; the Arts Partnership, $56,000; and the Education Compact, $32,000.

Waldron and Diaz expressed support for sparing some funding for the nonprofits, but couldn't secure a crucial third vote.

Diaz said during Wednesday's debate that she hadn't been as upset about local government since the council tried unsuccessfully to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants in 2006, an effort that prompted her to run for council and eventually win a seat in 2008.

"This is misusing our money," said Diaz, complaining that the city spent more than $700,000 on consultants last year analyzing a minor league ballpark that probably won't be built. "Taxes are not to fund our pet projects, they're paying for the stuff that people use."

Other cuts include reducing the annual arts center subsidy from $645,000 to $461,000 and saving $1.1 million by forcing employees to pay their own pension contributions.

In recreation, the city's annual subsidy will decrease from about $800,000 to $178,000 thanks to fee hikes, which will average 25 percent, and some minor program reductions.

The Police Department, which makes up 43 percent of the city's budget at about $32 million, would also face minor cuts that could decrease anti-gang efforts and bike patrols.

Library compromise

But the library branch, which is a satellite of the city's much larger main library on Kalmia Street, was the most contentious topic Wednesday.

Diaz and library supporters complained that city staff and the council hadn't responded to a May 25 offer from donors to cover half of the branch's $192,000 annual operating costs in the coming fiscal year, as long as the council agreed to keep the branch open in subsequent years.


