The Redwood City Council has approved a mid-year budget amendment to add staff positions to ease workload. It will consider funding the Hoover Pool/Park Conversion Project at a future meeting.
“We need to run with all of the economic development opportunities that we get,” said Mayor Elmer Martinez-Saballos during the Feb. 24 meeting.
The council voted unanimously to approve the addition of five full-time equivalent positions across multiple departments including a communications manager in the city manager’s office, a senior civil engineer in Engineering and Transportation, a human resources technician and a management fellow in finance. Additionally, the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department will add a new manager.
As part of the budget amendment, the city staff also recommended funding the Hoover Pool/Park Conversion Project and the Play Equipment Replacement Program. Due to shortfalls in the parks impact fee fund, which is used to finance the park and recreation facilities, the city staff proposed an interfund loan from the general fund to cover the existing negative balance and finance these priority projects.
The staff report presented to the council mentioned that except the Hoover Pool and the Play Equipment program, most park projects are not heavily reliant on Parks Impact Fee revenues. Since the city isn’t planning to start these projects soon and there’s a shortage of money, they will be temporarily defunded until more revenue becomes available.
According to Derek Wolfgram, the Parks, Recreation and Community Services director, when the city transitioned to a new financial system, some data didn’t transfer correctly. This led the department to believe it had more money available than it actually did, resulting in expenditures that were not backed by sufficient revenue. He added that revenues have slowed due to long-delayed projects and policy changes that exempted certain items from fees.
“So it’s kind of a perfect storm of all of that that’s put us in this position of being a little short in that fund,” said Wolfgram.
The city staff recommended a $5 million loan be provided from the general fund to the park impact fees fund that would then allocate $988,753 specifically for Hoover Park and play equipment replacements and use the remaining money to offset the negative balance.
Councilmember Jeff Gee argued that the city should not be spending money it does not have.
“As difficult as it may be to delay projects, the funds aren’t here unless we make the decision to fund these projects by general fund instead of park impact fees,” he said.
The council will be voting on the loan at an April meeting as additional revenue streams and funding opportunities become clearer.
