Chico City Council approves $211.1 million budget
CHICO » The Chico City Council approved its 2022/2023 fiscal year budget in a 6-1 vote based on recommendations from interim City Manager Paul Hahn and various department heads.
A special 1 p.m. meeting was held ahead of the normally scheduled 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday for the council to hear a full breakdown from the department heads with their requests as well as their plans for the funding.
The presentation began with Hahn providing context for the council during a time of economic unease. Hahn explained concerns surrounding the supply chain and an uncertain financial future for the state of California before handing the presentation over to Deputy Director of Finance Barbara Martin.
Martin broke down some new features involved with the city’s budget. For example, city staff requested that changes in funding allocation or modifications under $100,000 will no longer be brought to the council but rather placed in a new summary report that the council and public can review. She added that this was standard practice for many municipalities.
Dollars that move from one year to another that are not considered rollover from the previous budget will still require council approval.
A new fund has also been created which joins together all road and street projects which were previously doled out between various funds.
Once changes were presented to the council, each department head gave their own presentation.
Police Department
The most well-funded department, coming in this year at just under $32.49 million, was the Chico Police Department which was presented by Police Chief Matt Madden.
There is an expected personnel cost of a little less than $26.6 million which consists of pay and benefits for employees, of which there are 171 in the department.
Rather than asking for additional police officers this year, Madden requested five new employees in other sections of his operation. This included an evidence technician, two new community service officers and two dispatchers.
One goal from both the police and fire departments this year is to split the singular dispatch office into two, one that handles police services and the other for fire. The plan here, Madden said, is to provide the Fire Department with three of the dispatchers currently employed with the city and hire two additional ones to provide services for the Police Department.
Madden explained that the types of calls for the two departments differ greatly and by splitting into two factions, it would allow dispatchers to be more efficient for both ends.
The police chief went over some other expenses planned for the department such as the conversion of its 15 shotguns from lethal to non-lethal.
“That type of firearm I really don’t think is appropriate for an urban area such as Chico,” Madden said, adding that with the conversion, officers will start keeping a shotgun in their patrol vehicles rather than having them locked up in supervisor vehicles.
Another plan Madden showcased was a virtual reality system to allow for more in-depth training for officers. The cost of the subscription for the system and software comes out to $15,509 for the year.
Public Works
The city of Chico has two separate public works departments. One focuses on operations and maintenances while the other focuses on engineering.
Erik Gustafson led the presentation for operations and maintenance, which is getting a budget of roughly $25.46 million.
Gustafson’s department contains 91 employees and maintains a personnel cost of $11.34 million.
In broad terms, Gustafson said the Public Works Operations and Maintenance department has set its sights on enhancing infrastructure and recreation facilities to create more inviting spaces for the public.
The department oversees 10 divisions such as street cleaning, facilities, traffic safety, parking meters, the airport and wastewater treatment.
One new division Gustafson presented was outreach and engagement for the city’s new Pallet shelter as well as camp cleanup.
While there were many areas in which Gustafson said he felt he had adequate staffing, such as the new camp cleanup division and sidewalk maintenance, his department was struggling to keep up with other aspects such as road repair and traffic signals.
Gustafson said street maintenance takes about 6 to 10 months to get to each service request because of heavy backlogs of work.
For new employees, Gustafson asked that the council allow for one new lab technician and a senior industrial mechanic for the wastewater treatment plant, two new workers for tree maintenance, one senior maintenance worker for parks and one mechanic for the city’s vehicle fleet.
In regards to managing and repairing the city’s vehicles, Gustafson said the department previously had one mechanic for every 76 vehicles when the industry standard is one to 40.
Public Works Director of Engineering Leigh Ann Sutton provided the presentation for her department which oversees 37 employees and will get a budget of about $6.84 million.
Fire Department
Chico Fire Chief Steve Standridge broke down the budget and goals for the Chico Fire Department as well as some of the more expensive items in the form of new fire engines.
Goals consisted of longterm sustainable staffing as well as emergency pre-planning and other preparation work.
The Fire Department will have a budget of about $17.06 million with an anticipated personnel cost of about $14.42 million for its 73 employees.
Standridge said his department is facing high turnover because of a number of factors such as retirements and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic meaning many of his employees are having to take considerable overtime just to maintain minimum staffing levels.
Another goal for this fiscal year is to secure funding for the proposed Station 6 on the north end of Chico.
Standridge also plans to upgrade the Fire Department’s radio systems to keep them up to date.
Other departments
Community Development Director Brendan Vieg broke his requests into divisions consisting of housing, planning and geographical information systems.
The housing division received a budget of $478,665 while planning got a budget of $2.43 million and graphic information systems mapping received $330,021.
The Administrative Services Department will work with a budget of just over $5.1 million with an anticipated personnel cost of $3.18 million.
City Management, which is the home of Hahn and three other employees will get about $1.55 million to operate with a personnel cost coming in at $941,450.
The meeting was dedicated to Administrative Services Director Scott Dowell who recently died. At the end of the planning session, Martin played a video of Dowell charismatically explaining allocations to the City Council by comparing it to pie, of which he brought multiple to share with the council and staff.
The Chico City Council mostly meets at 6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 421 Main St. Meetings are free and open to the public.