Council looks at travel budget

The Porterville City Council wants to trim budget “fat” by cutting ties with its Sacramento lobbyist and the California League of Cities, and by slashing completely its $8,000 contingency fund.

The cuts amount to a savings of $73,700 — a small fraction of the $1 million savings it needs to come up with to prevent a shortfall.

The Council has not made a decision about whether it will reduce its travel budget, which amount to $4,500 per Councilman annually, not counting Council member expenses for cell phone and wireless Internet service. There is currently $1,016 budgeted for those expenditures, according to City Manager John Lollis.

Council members said Tuesday night during a budget study session that they want to reduce their own costs before directing other departments to do the same. They anticipate making enough reductions to overcome a $2 million budget deficit. City departments are already on track to save $1 million as they adhere to 5 percent budget cuts.

The Council directed the City Manager to head to the bargaining table to meet and confer with workers’ bargaining associations to potentially negotiate reduced payroll costs. It also advised him to increase the departments’ budget cuts to 6 percent.

Pay for meetings

In addition to the travel budget and city-covered Internet and cell phone expense, each council member is paid $20 per Council meeting and the Mayor is paid $25 per meeting for up to seven meetings a month. Additionally, the Council members earn $30 per Redevelopment Agency meeting. Often the meetings are held on the same night.

According to the City’s accounting reports which enumerate expenditures for “Meeting Expenses” through Fiscal Year 2009-10, Brian Ward is the only Council member who has not spent more than $4,500 in one fiscal year. Ward’s total since being seated in 2005-06 is $3,644.42.

Cameron Hamilton has spent the most, but has also served on the Council longer than any of his counterparts. In the past eight years, Hamilton spent $21,914.50.
In fiscal years 2005-06 and 2006-07, he went over the allotted amounts by spending $5,200 and $11,274.96, respectively.

According to City Manager John Lollis, Hamilton, who was Mayor at the time, travelled to Washington D.C. twice that year, as well as to Bentonville, Ark. to meet with Walmart officials, and to various cities across California for policy and League of Cities meetings in Sacramento, Burlingame, San Jose and San Diego.

Hamilton says he travelled to Washington D.C. in Fiscal Year 2006-07 to work on the Success Dam project, but believes the $11,274.96 is an accounting error, because he said he never spent that much. Lollis said the amount seems irregular and is reviewing whether an input error occurred.

In four fiscal years starting in 2005-06, former Council members Felipe Martinez spent $20,559.84, and went over the budget amount in fiscal years 2006-07 when he spent $7,041.03 and the following year when he spent $5,112.43.

Former member Pedro “Pete” Martinez — now seated on the Woodville Union Elementary School Board — spent $11,513.70 during his tenure between fiscal years 2003-04 and 2009-10.

Pete McCracken, who was first elected in 2005, has since spent a total of $5,428.10.
The Recorder has submitted public records requests for receipts for cell phones, monthly cell phone bills, laptops, and wireless Internet that the City pays on behalf of the Council members, and will report that information as soon as it is received.

According to Lollis, not all Council members have cell phones or laptops provided by the City. He said three of the five current Councilmen — Hamilton, McCracken and Shelton — have cell phones that were purchased with taxpayer money.

Proposed solutions

To limit spending, newcomer Greg Shelton suggested that each of the Council member’s budgets be consolidated and capped at $6,000, so, for example, cell phone bills and hotel stay reimbursements would come out of one account. As incentive for staying within the $6,000, he suggested that the elected officials have discretion to funnel the remaining funds into another City department.

“If you wanna give it to the police department for bonuses for the guys, if you wanna give it to the fire department, if you wanna give it to Baldo [Rodriguez] and his crew because they all did a great job and they can all buy themselves steak dinners ... it’s a little inspiration,” he said.  

Hamilton said he wanted to think further about Shelton’s suggestion before making a decision. He later noted that he might be in favor of establishing a new policy that would require Council approval for a member to travel.

Mayor Ron Irish proposed that once a quarter, an item be put on the Council’s agenda that would allow the public to review each person’s expenditures.

All of the direction provided to the City Manager Tuesday night will be considered for official adoption when the Council votes on the Fiscal Year 2010-11 budget as a package in October.

Contact Jenna Chandler at 784-5000, Ext. 1050, or jchandler@portervillerecorder.com.