Encinitas should consider hiring two more deputies to do traffic enforcement, plus put an extra $1 million into street repaving and storm drain improvements, City Council members said last week as they began debating what might go into the coming year’s budget.
After several months of budget workshops and public hearings, the council is scheduled to vote on the city’s proposed spending plan on June 11, and the new fiscal year will begin July 1.
During the first of the city’s budget meetings — a special workshop session Wednesday — Mayor Bruce Ehlers, who was elected in November, said he had several, high-priority items that ought to be added into the spending plan. Ehlers said “basic infrastructure is right up there” on his list, particularly upgrades to storm drains and roadway asphalt.
The city typically sets aside $250,000 annually for storm drain pipe improvements, but he would like to “get ahead of the curve” and set aside $1 million each year for the next five years, adding that if the city does this it could have its entire system overhauled by the end of the five-year period.
Ehlers also said he wants to add an extra $1 million into the coming year’s budget for street repaving, and $5 million to help resolve Leucadia’s rainwater flooding woes. And, he said, he would like to double the city staff’s new proposal for traffic enforcement. Instead of adding one new traffic enforcement deputy, the city ought to pay for two, he said.
Encinitas contracts with the county Sheriff’s Office to provide city policing services. A city staff report indicates that adding one traffic deputy to the contract would cost $450,000 in the first year. That price includes the cost of the deputy’s vehicle.
Wednesday’s workshop was the first of two that the council will host before city employees formally unveil the city’s proposed budget in mid-May. A second workshop is set for April 23, and council members will need to make some tough choices at that event about what projects actually will receive money, city employees said.
Current estimates are that there could be about $8.5 million in extra money available in the coming fiscal year for additional projects. That estimate includes $6.5 million that’s likely going to be left over from the current year. Revenue for the general fund — the fund that covers day-to-day city spending — is forecast to be $113.2 million in the coming year, while expenses are estimated to be $105 million, a 3.6% increase over the current year.
Councilmember Joy Lyndes didn’t attend Wednesday’s session — she’s out on family medical leave for two months — but the three other council members said they could support the mayor’s new spending ideas.
Councilmember Luke Shaffer said he was strongly in favor of “getting our infrastructure set,” while Councilmember Marco San Antonio said improving Leucadia drainage issues was a good goal.
Both Shaffer and Councilmember Jim O’Hara said they wanted to set aside some money for design work on several future construction projects, including a pedestrian pathway along Vulcan Avenue. If that design work is done, then the projects would be “shovel ready” when new grant opportunities come available, Shaffer noted.
O’Hara’s funding wish list also included money for improvements to Encinitas Boulevard, including redoing the traffic signals, so it doesn’t take people like him who live a mile from Moonlight Beach some 30 minutes to drive to the beach when there’s lots of vehicle traffic on the roadway.
“We’ve got to fix that,” he said.
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