HomeCity Government NewsHuang Shares First of Many Position Papers

Huang Shares First of Many Position Papers

Councilman Steven Huang shared his first position paper last Sunday, beginning to fulfill campaign promises to be transparent and informed about the issues. The 13-page paper, which was accompanied by a three-page letter addressed to Mayor Allan Yung, was sent to hundreds of people in San Marino.

The first paper focused on what Huang referred to as the “Recreation Department $326,000 Annual Subsidy,” which, he added, “if eliminated, could be used to reduce the unfunded pension liability—$3.6 million in ten years.”

The subsidy falls under the category of non-department generated unrestricted funds in the Recreation Department’s budget, a revenue stream that comes out of the city’s general fund. For the 2016-17 fiscal year the Recreation Department requested 52.8 percent less from the city’s general fund because of a 16 percent increase to program fees.

He recommended four motions in his first paper, asking the mayor to put these motions “on the next appropriate city council agenda.”

The four motions include mandating the Recreation Department to recover at least 85 percent of its programs expenses in the 2016-17 fiscal year; increasing the program area recovery rate to 100 percent for the 2017-18 fiscal year; and directing the $326,000 subsidy and $100,000 budgeted for Stoneman School repairs to an account dedicated to paying down the city’s unfunded pension liability – a combination of two of his objectives.

If adopted, his recommendations would essentially force the Recreation Department to become financially self sustaining. Huang admits that this goal would increase program fees. To not raise program fees too dramatically over one year, he recommended that future fee increases start after the 2016-17 fiscal year.

The San Marino City Council currently mandates the Recreation Department to recover 70 percent of its program expenses. The department is on track to recover 88 percent of its program area expenses for the 2015-16 fiscal year and 77 percent of expenses when all services are included.

The department has allocated 60 percent of the $100,000 budgeted for Stoneman from the 2015-16 fiscal year budget.

At the city’s budget presentation on May 2, Huang asked Interim Community Service Director Cindy Collins about his 100 percent expense recovery proposal. With that type of change, Collins responded, “there will be a whole new look to the department.”

Though the paper’s main topic was the Recreation Department, Huang addressed other items on his issues list like the $20.6 million unfunded pension liability and the long-term future of Stoneman School.

His other issues include the 3 versus 3 firefighter/paramedics per fire engine debate, the size of city staff and the city’s payroll load rate, all of which will be subjects of future positions papers.

Huang wrote in his letter, “My goal is to reflect the facts that to the best of my knowledge are accurate. I invite you to draw your own conclusions as I have when I recommend adoption of a motion or state my opinion on an issue.”

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