Peninsula residents won\u2019t be alone in sharing the city\u2019s unfolding budget pains. Reductions in public safety positions and additional cuts to city services marked the final action of the San Diego City Council in 2009 as councilmembers recess until next year. The City Council on Dec. 14 approved midyear budget amendments to help close an estimated $179 million budget deficit projected for 2011. Part of Mayor Jerry Sanders\u2019 18-month plan adopted by the council includes cutting administrative positions, reducing library hours at all branches, cutting civilian positions in public safety services and shifting about $4.3 million in Mission Bay Park revenue to the general fund, effectively putting off maintenance projects. Cuts also include reductions to lifeguard services at Torrey Pines State Beach for nine months out of the year, according to city documents. During the council meeting, District 1 Councilwoman Sherri Lightner pointed to revenue owed the city which could cover “lifeguard services at Torrey Pines State Beach, or the restoration thereof.” The City Council also reduced canine and mounted police units. Councilmembers approved the budget recommendations in a 7-1 vote Monday, with District 5 Councilman Carl DeMaio reiterating his vote against the mayor\u2019s recommendations because he said it is “not structurally balanced.” “It relies on one-time monies \u2026 one-time fixes that will fall apart in \u2026 2012,” DeMaio said. “It also intentionally underfunds our retiree healthcare benefits to the tune of $60 million.” Even with the changes adopted by the City Council under this plan, the city would still face an estimated $77 million deficit next year, according to DeMaio. The City Council initially approved the budget recommendations Dec. 9 before casting the final approval Monday. Community service cuts: \u2022 Reduction of library hours to 36 hours a week and elimination of 15 “fulltime equivalent” (FTE) positions. \u2022 Reduction of Balboa Park parking lot sweeping service and one FTE position. \u2022 Winter restroom closures across the Park and Recreation Department. \u2022 Implement rolling “brown outs” by reducing eight engines from fire stations. \u2022 Elimination of services at Torrey Pines State Beach for nine months. \u2022 Reduction of a lifeguard position at Windansea Beach. \u2022 Reduction of 41 police department civilian positions. \u2022 An estimated $4.3 million in Mission Bay Park improvement deferred maintenance.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peninsula residents won\u2019t be alone in sharing the city\u2019s unfolding budget pains. Reductions in public safety positions and additional cuts to city services marked the final action of the San Diego City Council in 2009 as councilmembers recess until next year. The City Council on Dec. 14 approved midyear budget amendments to help close an […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":283890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"City budget noose is ready to tighten","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}