At the Monday, March 27th budget meeting, several City employees were quietly sitting in the seats waiting to see if their job would be cut for the next year. As the City Manager began to describe to the City Council the various budget scenarios; recommended services, minimum services and optimum services (when economy was better) I watched the faces of those employees. Grim and concerned would be the description.
These City employees have worked very hard to provide the necessary services around town that makes life a little easier for all of us. We are faced once again with borrowing from reserves and possibly deleting some positions in order to create the ultimate budget for next year.
The only reason Foster City residents have not felt the difficult times that neighboring cities have, is because previous councils were able to save during the good economic times for these “rainy days”. But no one thought these rainy days would ever last as long as they have. Foster City’s good fiscal management has enabled all of us to sleep well each night and not worry about the everyday city services we enjoy.
I have stated many times that all of us need to be involved and be knowledgeable of what is happening around us. I believe by having this knowledge, we would be able to share more ideas with one another and better understand decisions that are ultimately made on the City’s behalf.
I say this because once again the City is budgeting $20,000 to reimburse the school district who hires and pays the crossing guards. Now, I’m not suggesting we cancel this service, so don’t all have heart failure, but I am suggesting we come up with other ways of providing this service.
One idea was to have parent volunteers. This idea was not well received. There is another one, however, that I think we can all embrace. If the parents of at least 1,000 students in Foster City gave a $20 donation to the school district, the district would have the $20,000 each year to provide this service in our City. I look at this as a way we can all work together. This is only one example.
The City cannot continue dipping into the reserves year after year. I believe by working together where possible, we can have painless solutions to some of the problems. Of course, as I told those employees that night, we are not merely going to look at cutting expenses but creating new revenues for the City. This is imperative for the City’s long-range plans.
The budget scenario we ultimately select will depend on how much money we’ll have to borrow from reserves to maintain the current level of services and/or cut jobs. This has been a common issue since I joined Council almost three years ago. I don’t think many of our residents are aware of how difficult this process is. This is why I have initiated the Town Hall meetings.
It’s important that you are all a part of the important decisions that must be made as we plan for the future of the City. Changes will have to be made and change is difficult. A successful future for Foster City will depend on the strategic planning we do right now.
Your comments are always welcome.
My email is lkoelling@fostercity.org
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