CITY BEAT City approves $28.6 million for FY 23-24 expenditures Fiscal year 2023-24 revenues projected at $22,265,600

BY ATMIKA IYER

The Carpinteria City Council approved the 2023-24 fiscal year budget – with an estimated revenue of $22.2 million, expenditures of $28.6 million and remaining fund balance of $13.6 million – in a unanimous vote during the June 26 city council meeting.

Councilmemb er Mónica Solórzano made the motion to approve the budget, with Councilmember Wade Nomura seconding. The budget was broken down into general government funds, administrative services funds, community development funds, public works funds and Parks, Recreation and Facilities.

General Government

Assistant City Manager Michael Ramirez delivered a breakdown of the $10.1 million the General Government department will receive in the upcoming fiscal year budget.

He said that the purpose of the department “is to provide effective leadership to the organization, ensure transparency and accountability to the public and assist your council on developing and implementing public policy and the budget and also to ensure delivery of essential and desired services in an efficient, effective and equitable manner.”

General Government is composed of four divisions: city administration, allotted $2.6 million; human resources, allotted $977,000; city clerk, allotted $165,000; and public safety, which includes law enforcement and emergency services management, allotted $6.4 million.

Ramirez noted that law enforcement and legal expenditures comprise 71% of the department’s budget.

Public commenters at the June 12 and June 26 meetings spoke out against the budget for the community services support programs, which provided many organizations with less funding than they had initially requested because of budgetary constraints. Though the council asked city staff to research and see if additional funds could be procured for the community services support programs during the June 12 meeting, staff returned with an unaltered budget.

Administrative Services

Administrative Services Director of Finance Licette Maldonado spoke to how the department’s allocation of $1.2 million will be spent in the upcoming fiscal year. The administrative services department is responsible for handling the city’s financial health through accounting, auditing, payroll and more.

Administrative Services is composed of three divisions: financial management services, allocated $619,000; central services, allocated $269,000; and management information services, allocated $370,000.

Community Development

According to Director of Community Development Steve Goggia, the department’s budget is “fairly stable.”

The department received $2.1 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year budget, which was

The city approved $22,265,600 in revenues and $28,621,850 in expenditures for the 2023-24 fiscal year split among its two divisions: community development administration – composed of advance planning, housing, building and development review groups – received $1.7 million; and code compliance – composed of parking and zoning enforcement, homeless assistance and animal care and control – received $397,000.

Public Works

Director of Public Works John Ilasin shared the financial breakdown of the department’s given allocation of $11.5 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year budget.

The department is composed of three divisions: engineering, which covers administration, parking, lighting, transportation and capital improvements; street maintenance; and sustainability and the environment, which covers resource conservation, solid waste and watershed management. The divisions received $9 million, $1.9 million and $644,000 respectively.

The money allocated for capital improvement projects decreased by $5 million from the previous year, Ilasin said, with a budget of $8 million for the upcoming fiscal year. This $8 million covers the Carpinteria Skate Park, dune and shoreline management, the Rincon Bluffs park, improvements to the Franklin Creek Trail, beach beautification by Linden Avenue, the council’s solar energy project and campus improvements project, pavement maintenance and rehabilitation, improvements to the intersection of Carpinteria and Palm avenues, the former Venoco pipeline abandonment, the Carpinteria High School crosswalk and improvements to Linden Avenue.

Ilasin said staff used five criteria to determine what projects they could pursue within their tighter budget: available dis- cretionary funds, construction readiness, grant deadlines, city staff capacity and the council’s annual work plan.

“Measure X is doing the heavy lifting with $4.3 million,” Mayor Al Clark said of the department’s budget for capital improvements. “There isn’t going to be any money the way we’re going. We’re using up Measure X.”

Parks, Recreation and Facilities

Director of Parks, Recreation and Public Services Matt Roberts presented a breakdown of the total budget of $3.5 million the department received to split among its three divisions: parks and public facilities, which was allocated $1.5 million; recreation services, which was allocated $1.3 million; and the municipal library which was allocated $688,000.

Recreational programming such as Jr. Lifeguards, pool activities and the community garden fall under Recreation Services, according to Roberts.

Librarian Jody Thomas shared the services the Carpinteria Community Library was able to offer thus far such as homework assistance, a volunteer program, summer reading programs, literacy programs and public computers. Thomas noted that Measure X’s contribution toward the library’s funding was only 50%.

HCD requests more info in Housing Element

Director of Community Development

Steve Goggia told the council that the California Department of Housing and Community Development requested more information be incorporated into Carpinteria’s Housing Element in a letter on June 12.

The council voted to adopt the Housing Element and send it to the California Department of Housing and Community

Development (HCD) during its April 10 meeting. HCD has now sent two letters to the city of Carpinteria requesting revisions and delaying the approval process tho ugh, according to Goggia, many cities in California are receiving multiple letters from HCD for Housing Element revisions.

No local jurisdictions have been certified yet, according to Goggia.

He added that city staff plan to have a meeting this week with HCD to discuss expectations of the revised Housing Element with hopes that the next line of revisions will elicit approval.

“We have been working with our Housing Element team including our attorneys and planners to come up with a response,” Goggia said. “It seems like the big theme is HCD doesn’t really un- derstand Carpinteria. We’re being treated like a very large city, and we want to get that across, and they said they would accept a phone call from us, and we can try to get from them what they’re actually looking for.”

The revised Housing Element will be presented to the council within the next two months.

Peggy Griffiths will be the featured artist at the upcoming Saturday, July 1 Carpinteria Arts and Crafts Faire; she creates jewelry out of natural stones, as well as handmade cards and paper crafts.

Carpinteria Arts and Craft

Faire: July 1

The Carpinteria Arts and Craft Faire will be held on Saturday, July 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Koch Courtyard at the Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center.

The featured artist of this month’s faire is Peggy Griffiths, who creates handcrafted jewelry using natural stones, pearls and crystals sourced from the earth and sea, as well as handmade cards and paper crafts.

“To enhance my designs, I also incorporate many different metals as long as they are lead and nickel free,” Griffiths said in a press release. “Each piece is uniquely designed based on the type and shape of stone, pearl or semi-precious gemstone.”

The Arts and Craft Faire will feature many other local vendors selling a variety of goods. The Ukulele Jammers will provide live music in the morning and the Americana Cats will follow in the afternoon. The Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center is located at 865 Linden Ave.