Salinas City Council sees updated effort to address budget issues

Tuesday night the Salinas City Council received their first report and update on the “Salinas Plan” – a breakdown and list of recommendations to address an expected budget crisis.

The report from the City Manager’s office briefly described the city’s progress on the 32 recommendations, with nine of them listed as identifying “specific budget savings” for the 2020 fiscal year. They include consolidating county and city animal services, adding a safety manager position to curb potential worker’s compensation liability claims, and increasing parking rates in downtown Salinas. The report also wrote that they have started to implement staffing and overtime reduction at Salinas fire and police departments.

The “Salinas Plan” report by the National Resource Network, published in November 2018, found that the city will be operating at an annual deficit of more than 10 million dollars by 2027, if no change is made – and in ten years, Salinas would have a cumulative deficit of 60 million dollars.

The city council’s finance committee will receive monthly reports, with the full council receiving updates on a quarterly basis.