GONZALES — The City of Gonzales looks toward law enforcement, youth recreation, Mann Packing jobs and more in the next fiscal year as the driving forces of the 2017-2018 budget.
“This city is one of the few cities that is an importer of jobs into the city,” City Manager Rene Mendez said. “There are a lot of jobs being generated by the industrial park and a lot more by the Mann Packing Company.”
Mann Packing is in the planning stages of bringing a facility to Gonzales.
The City is also looking into sustainable energy producing. Taylor Farms is making an effort with its environmental sustainability projects to be 100 percent sustainable. The City Council of Gonzales is continuing efforts to move toward clean energy by joining the Monterey Bay Community Power Agency, and the City is also the lead representation for South County in those efforts.
“This is the third year that we are not using any fund balance to balance the general fund,” Mendez said. “That’s a significant accomplishment.”
Total city expenditures are $18.6 million. The general fund is currently at $5 million and is the largest fund balance followed by the water fund. The water fund is driven by capital projects and in the next year will face expenditures from replacing the well and a closer look at the water distribution system.
The increase in the city expenditures is approximately $1.2 million and is due to personnel changes, a second fire engineer hire, the after-school program and TOT funding priorities. Gonzales is the lead agency on the Strengthening Law Enforcement and Community Relations grant and has received funds to offset the city’s costs.
Alta Street is also included on next year’s budget to make some improvements.
“I think they are long overdue and hopefully we now have the ability to do them,” Mendez said.
“What’s not reflected here is there is absolutely no revenue contemplated from any of the cannabis businesses,” Mendez added. “We’ll probably be in our next fiscal year before we see any of the revenue tax put in place.”
According to Mendez, there are areas where expenditures exceed revenues, such as the circulation impact fund, which is $457,054 estimated in the current fiscal year with some of it being used for projects for the following year.
In the law enforcement side, the city is keeping the deputy police chief position vacant for now. The Fire Engineer addition is to keep up with the increased work load. In 2012, the Fire Department had 216 calls and 13 active volunteers. In 2016, there was 675 calls and 13 volunteers. Currently, for the 2017 year, there have been 298 calls.
“The number of volunteers is pretty much the same and their call volume has gone way up,” Mendez said.
The 2017-2018 budget was approved by Mayor Maria Orozco, Mayor Pro Tem Liz Silva and Council Members Scott Funk and Robert Bonincotri. Council Member Jose Lopez was absent.
