City coffers in good shape, but prudence advised

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The assistant city manager urges precaution in dealing with the city’s budget. In other news, city decides to forgo installing a tsunami warning system.

By Jonathan Friedman / The Malibu Times

While presenting a financial report on the past fiscal year that concluded June 30, Assistant City Manager Reva Feldman told the City Council that Malibu is in better shape than many other cities. But she warned that the city should revise some of its budget policies to make sure the positive situation continues.

Excluding the money it received through the issuance of bond-like certificates of participation to pay for the new City Hall, the city received $21.5 million in revenue for the 2009-10 fiscal year and spent $19.5 million. Tax revenue and money earned through city services exceeded Feldman’s original projections.

“We did OK,” Feldman said. “We kept our head above water, where a lot of others were struggling. We’re still hanging in there.”

But she added, “Even though this year and prior years, we have been able to add to our general fund reserves, I believe we need to be prudent as we move forward [when we could] see some of our revenue sources flat-lining or potentially declining, that we take an overall look at what we are doing and what we are moving forward with.”

Feldman said she would be presenting “in-depth proposals revising some of our budget ideas to the council in January.”

Project appeals fees concern some

Another financial issue discussed at the meeting was the cost of appealing projects rejected or approved by the Planning Commission. These projects can be appealed to the City Council for $1,000 or 25 percent of the amount the applicant has paid for permits. Or they can be appealed directly to the California Coastal Commission for free. Appeals upheld by the City Council can also be further appealed to the Coastal Commission (rejections cannot). Planning Commission Chair John Mazza and developer Norm Haney said the cost issue is leading to too many appeals going straight to the Coastal Commission, with the City Council being excluded from the process.

“It seems to me that we have people in the community [who] don’t have the money or are unwilling to pay the money to appeal a project to the City Council and allow it to be vetted by the elected officials,” said Haney, noting that Coastal Commission members are appointed.

He continued, “We need to either lower the fee or find some way to get a project before the City Council if a person wants to appeal the project.”

Several council members said this was something worth exploring. Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich said it could also be a case of appellants “forum shopping.” Mayor Pro Tem John Sibert said it was important to make sure the cost of appeals covers the cost of staff time to address them. City Manager Jim Thorsen said the fee amounts, which were adopted last year, would go back to the city council for review and possible adjustment next month. Also, he said he would talk to those who have filed appeals to find out what their reasons were for choosing where to direct the appeal.

No tsunami warning system for Malibu

Also at the meeting, the council accepted Emergency Services Coordinator Brad Davis’ advice that the city should not issue a request for proposals regarding a tsunami warning system for Malibu. Davis said the risk of a tsunami was low, while the cost of installing a sound alert system along Pacific Coast Highway could be in the $750,000 range.

“Don’t get me wrong, as an emergency manager, I’m of course concerned about reducing risk in every possible way to every potential hazard that we have for Malibu,” Davis said. “But I think it’s based upon understanding what this risk really is.”

Davis said there is the added issue that a sound system might not alert people who live near the loud ocean and would be unable to hear it. Also, when windows and doors are shut, the sound might not come through. Council members and staff tossed around various other ideas, including a telephone alert system for tsunamis, fire and other natural disasters. They asked staff to look at various options, including grant money that could be acquired to pay for this.

Also during the quarterly meeting, Councilmember Lou La Monte clarified a comment he made from a previous meeting about Pacific Coast Highway traffic enforcement. He said when he announced at the previous council meeting that Sheriff Lee Baca told him he supports a future with the California Highway Patrol monitoring Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, he did not mean it would necessarily be instead of the Sheriff’s Department. A combined force on the highway with the CHP and the Sheriff’s Department has not previously been a mainstream concept.