Town Council gets first look at proposed $19 million budget

By Jeff Kearns

The $19 million budget proposed for the 1999-2000 fiscal year outlines almost $1.5 million more in expenditures than the current fiscal year budget, mostly because sales and property tax revenue is up.

Town manager Dave Knapp, however, issued the same caveat as last year, warning that some regional economic indicators are starting to show signs of cooling.

Although this year's budget hearing was mostly a formality, upcoming budget meetings might look more like the heated debates of the lean mid-'90s if the valley's sunny financial climate clouds over.

"If the economy begins to lag, for example, then people don't buy new cars, and if they don't buy new cars, then the sales tax drops off precipitously," Knapp said.

A Place for Teens, known as the Outhouse, was the lucky winner at the hearing, after its original allocation was more than doubled.

The teen center requested that its original allocation of $3,300 be increased to $8,300, but councilmembers may ask to see more accounting of how the money will be spent before approving the additional $5,000 and making the center an annual budget item.

The council also considered finding a new source for $1,570 to Music in the Plaza, which Linda Lubeck suggested could come out of the council's benefits budget.

The Arts Commission recommended that the money shouldn't come out of the community grants section of the budget, which is usually reserved for nonprofit human services items.

Two more motorcycle officers were added to the police department budget for traffic enforcement, bringing the total to three traffic cops.

The Planning Department--which has been swamped by development applications for the last two years--got funding to upgrade one planner from half time to full time and make its code compliance officer a full-time staff member instead of half-time.

The town will also be getting a full-time engineer and a full-time management information systems manager, instead of the current setup which has staffer Chris Gjerde splitting time between both of those jobs. Gjerde will take the MIS job full-time.

The council also tentatively approved another half-time employee to help cover passport services for the Town Clerk's office.

The 4.5 new positions combined with two more approved mid-year bring the total number of town employees up to about 173, but that's still below 1990 levels, when the town had about 200 employees.

Most of the money saved on staff has been going into capital improvements and one-time expenses during the good times, which Knapp says is a major problem for the town's fiscal picture because there's no steady revenue for the capital improvements.

Another question mark in the town's fiscal future is the money it gets from the state from the car tax. State lawmakers cut the tax last year, cutting a major revenue source for local governments. Los Gatos, however, pledged that revenue from the state to help pay off the parking garage on Lot 4, which town officials say should make it safe from cutting until at least 2012.

Some budget requests went unfunded:

* A third new motorcycle officer and a crime prevention officer for the police department;

* A Parks and Public Works employee to clean up trash downtown and clean sidewalks;

* $4,000 for the non-profit Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley, which takes care of sick or injured wildlife in the area;

* Another $2,000 for the Chamber of Commerce on top of the $20,000 it already receives.

The final budget is scheduled to come back for approval June 21.

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