• Support
  • Advertise
  • Locations
  • Contact
Friday, June 2, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTERS
San Clemente Times
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye on SC
    • Soapbox
      • Submit a Letter
    • Getting Out
    • SC Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • SC Surf
    • Dana Point Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of SC
  • Explore SC
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classifieds
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
  • Special Publications
    • A New You
    • Aging Well – For the Young at Heart
    • Best of San Clemente
    • Crib to College
    • Festival of Whales Event Program
    • Go See Do
    • Good Eats
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Money Matters
    • San Clemente Trolley Route Map
    • Summer Camp Guide
    • Swallows Day Parade & Mercado Event Guide
    • The Green Issue
    • Triton Football Preview
  • SC Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye on SC
    • Soapbox
      • Submit a Letter
    • Getting Out
    • SC Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • SC Surf
    • Dana Point Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of SC
  • Explore SC
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classifieds
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
  • Special Publications
    • A New You
    • Aging Well – For the Young at Heart
    • Best of San Clemente
    • Crib to College
    • Festival of Whales Event Program
    • Go See Do
    • Good Eats
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Money Matters
    • San Clemente Trolley Route Map
    • Summer Camp Guide
    • Swallows Day Parade & Mercado Event Guide
    • The Green Issue
    • Triton Football Preview
  • SC Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who
No Result
View All Result
San Clemente Times
No Result
View All Result

City Council Corner: With a New Year Comes a New Budget

Staff by Staff
August 2, 2018 5:37AM - Updated on August 3, 2018 4:15PM
in SC LIVING, SC Living Headlines
Council Corner Column: Everything’s New Again

Kathy Ward

0
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Kathy Ward
Kathy Ward

By City Councilmember Kathy Ward

For the city, the New Year begins July 1, bringing with it new funding for services and new planned projects.

First of all, the budget is balanced, as always, and the city is in a positive position. Revenue is forecasted conservatively and we never spend more than we receive.

The city of San Clemente is a full-service city because we provide our own water and sewer services and are not part of a special district. The city contracts out just over half of our service delivery, such as facilities, parks and street maintenance. We also contract out some of our engineering, planning and building functions as well as police and fire services. The city operates with fewer full-time employees than it did previously when we had employees performing all maintenance and we had our own police and fire departments.

While the city and its staff have been able to provide services in our departments without a large

increase in costs, we have experienced significant increases in the Sheriff’s contract and Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), which has increased a five-year average of 4.7 percent ($3.1 million) and 3.4 percent ($1.7 million), respectively. The entire sheriff’s contract is $15.7 million and the OCFA contract is $9.9 million for this budget cycle.

This year, the City Council added two new deputy positions to our sheriff’s contract and a fourth firefighter has been added to OCFA staffing levels.

For me, the largest takeaway for this year’s budget is the city continuing to be diligent in its monitoring of the budget and react immediately to signs of an economic downturn. Our long-term financial plan looks back five years for trends in cost increases and revenues, while we also look ahead five years to ensure our services are sustainable.

The City Council just voted to put an increase to our Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) on the ballot in November. TOT is a tax on visitors who stay in hotels in our city. The tax is currently at 10 percent and the Council is asking the voters if it should be increased to 12.5 percent. An increase in the fees will provide additional revenue to pay for increases the city faces in future years, like public safety costs, maintenance of the beaches, beach trail, Pier, sidewalks and streets, all amenities that visitors use when they visit our city.

A quick overview of the city’s budget process and financial investments. We follow a long-term financial planning process. Our financial and budget policies are conservative. We have reserve funding in place. We have minimal debt. Our investment portfolio is in safe, liquid and in well-diversified funds. Most capital projects are funded.

The city received this award for last year’ budget. San Clemente maintains a triple-A (AAA) rating by Standard & Poor’s.

Budgets are important, and your city and employees are striving to provide the best services possible to meet our mission statement.

Kathy Ward is a San Clemente City Council member who was elected to office in 2014. She served as the city’s mayor in 2017.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Tags: City CouncilGovernmentOrange CountyPeopletax
ShareTweetPin
Staff

Staff

Related Posts

South County Cities Saw Unemployment Rise in January

City, Chamber to Host County Job Fair

June 1, 2023
SCHS Earns WASC Accreditation

Capo Valley Republican Women Federated Presents Scholarships to 3 Local Graduating Seniors

June 1, 2023
BAMS Students Recognized for Completing Extracurricular Program Focused on Clean Water

BAMS Students Recognized for Completing Extracurricular Program Focused on Clean Water

June 1, 2023
Grom of the Week: Taylor Stacy

Grom of the Week: Taylor Stacy

June 1, 2023
Next Post
Social Media Wars: San Clemente Native Makes Short-Film Parody of ‘Brick,’ Takes Jab at Online Trolls Attacking ‘Star Wars’ Cast and Crew

Social Media Wars: San Clemente Native Makes Short-Film Parody of ‘Brick,’ Takes Jab at Online Trolls Attacking ‘Star Wars’ Cast and Crew

Discussion about this post

No Result
View All Result

SC Times Daily
Get important news and updates delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up here.

Subscriptions
Don’t get the SC Times delivered to your home? Subscribe today.

Advertising
Get new customers and drive traffic to your business. Advertise with us.

Support Local Journalism
For less than the cost of a couple of cups of coffee a month, become an “Insider” member and continue to get “Local News You Can Use” from the only independently owned, dedicated local news organization in South Orange County.

Contribute today.

Picket Fence Media is a proud member of the SoCal Media Network.

  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Dana Point Times
  • The Capistrano Dispatch
  • Terms of Use
  • About Us

© 2023 Picket Fence Media

No Result
View All Result
  • Calendar
    • Event Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Sections
    • Eye on SC
    • Soapbox
      • Submit a Letter
    • Getting Out
    • SC Living
    • Sports & Outdoors
    • SC Surf
    • Dana Point Times
    • Capistrano Dispatch
  • Digital Edition
  • Best of SC
  • Explore SC
  • Legals & Classifieds
    • Locals Only Business Directory
    • Classifieds
    • Submit a Classified
    • Obituaries
    • Announcements
    • Submit an Announcement
    • Legal & Public Notice Advertising
  • Special Publications
    • A New You
    • Aging Well – For the Young at Heart
    • Best of San Clemente
    • Crib to College
    • Festival of Whales Event Program
    • Go See Do
    • Good Eats
    • Holiday Happenings & Gift Guide
    • Money Matters
    • San Clemente Trolley Route Map
    • Summer Camp Guide
    • Swallows Day Parade & Mercado Event Guide
    • The Green Issue
    • Triton Football Preview
  • SC Guide
  • Real Estate
    • South County Real Estate Guide
    • Real Estate – Who’s Who

© 2023 Picket Fence Media