Council slashes $5M in spending
City ranger program eliminated, some positions restored as ‘community service officers’
SANTA CRUZ >> In a series of votes Thursday night to approve a “package of budget solutions” amounting to a nearly $6 million improvement to the city’s general fund outlook, the Santa Cruz City Council confirmed a controversial plan to eliminate the city’s 12-member ranger unit.
The council, however, took steps to preserve the Police Department’s victim advocate position as-is and to reduce a planned nearly $27,000 cut to Surf Museum operations, leaving it about a $10,000 budget for the year with plans to solicit community volunteers and fundraising assistance. The council also endorsed the department’s plan to move forward in hiring five unarmed community service officers, down one from the planned six hires to cover the retained victim’s advocate retention.
City Manager MartÍn Bernal warned the council that the evening’s budget decisions were not the last difficult decisions they would be asked to make in the coming months and years. Without some type of federal assistance, the council will need to make another $4 million in budget cuts for the next fiscal year, he said.
“In this round, we’ve got a lot of the vacant positions, we’ve cut a lot of the supplies and services part of the budget,” Bernal said. “So, unfortunately, that’s going to be as if not more difficult than what you’re facing now, if we have to do that the level of cuts.”
Councilwoman Cynthia Mathews, who has served six terms with the council and seen the ebb and flow of city finances, told her peers that none of the body’s decisions would be easy, but that city leaders would do their best.
“There will be some compromises in service and some things we love we have to let go, but we all know we were elected to be grownups,” Mathews said. “I think this, as much as any time, calls on us to have a feeling of generosity kind of across the board, because it’s going to be so tough going through this as a community and take a good long while.”
Prior to the council vote on the ranger unit elimination, council members were visibly and verbally reluctant to be seen as endorsing the plan. Mathews recused herself and signed out of the online meeting all together ahead of the ranger budget conversation, due to her son’s employment as a city ranger.
Caitlin Biliske, who has worked as a city ranger since the program was beneath the Parks and Recreation Department’s umbrella, called into the meeting to urge the council to stop the planned cuts and consider moving the ranger division back to its former home. Biliske said the change in position titles would have “direct impacts” to city services. She added that community service officers are paid at a higher hourly salary, meaning less of per-person savings, and that the upcoming hiring process would in no way ensure existing rangers retained their employment with the Police Department.
“A lthough the term ‘community service officer’ sounds generic enough to be able to be utilized for a multitude of different items, in reality, they serve as assistants to police officers to do work that they either don’t feel that they have the time to do or don’t feel like executing,” Biliske said. “The CSOs currently do not have the same input, in- depth training of our parks and open spaces or the opportunity to gain that knowledge after they’re off training, due to be inundated with cold paper.”
A f ter Councilwoman Katherine Beiers made the motion to approve the budget item, Mayor Justin Cummings waited nearly half a minute of stony silence from four mute council member to second the motion before ultimately seconding it himself.
Beiers asked those who opposed the plan to explain to her the difference between the positions, a switch she saw as “just expanding the duties and being able to hire those appropriate.”
“Hopefully many will get to stay and they won’t lose their job” Beiers added.
The council ultimately voted 5-1 to approve the cuts, with Councilwoman Sandy Brown voting against the move. Prior to joining the majority vote, Councilwoman Renee Golder telegraphed her anxiety to the camera by raising and shaking her fists, clutching her head and saying she was “still not ready, it’s really difficult.”
Parks and Recreation Director Tony Elliot, asked by Golder whether or not the ranger unit would have been eliminated during the latest round of budget cuts, were it still under his purview, said he believed so.
“Our mandate across the city is to cover these deficits,” Elliot said. “We’ve got a couple of years of that, so I think, regardless of where the rangers sat, in terms of department, the challenge would be the same — it would be to find those reductions. I think we’d be facing the same conversation or situation as we are now.”