A Difficult Financial Situation

Moraga’s philosophy has always been minimal government. In the average Contra Costa town 3.4 employees serve 1000 residents. In Moraga the number is 2.5, resulting in management working 55 to 60 hours weeks. “People are stressed, but show an incredible amount of commitment to the town,” says Jay Tashiro, the interim Town Manager. The number of police officers in town follows the same trend. The average rate of police officers per resident is 1/1000. In Moraga, that would mandate 16 officers. The force has 13 with two officers currently on disability and receiving full pay and benefits for up to a year. “On average, our Officers have put 11 extra hours of patrol per week,” says Moraga Chief of Police Ruppenthal. “The security of our residents is a priority,” had said Council member Bird at the June 11th town council meeting, “we need to do what it takes to be able to add strength to our police force.” Council member Ken Chew commented, “I would like to emphasize that our town's need for adequate and effective public safety must be maintained and enhanced. My hope is that two more police officers be added over and above what we currently have.” Joan Streit, Moraga Finance Director was instructed to find funds in the years to come to cover the deficit and add 1 to 3 new officers to the Moraga force.



Streit believes that Moraga’s financial state is not catastrophic. Many towns in the Bay Area are suffering far greater circumstances than Moraga, the town has little debt, its bond rating is essentially AAA, and all bargaining units are covered in the budget. The worrisome part of the equation is the growth of expenses while resources languish. “The cost of labor, supply and materials keeps growing,” explains the Director, “while our revenue stream is more or less stagnant.” The projected deficit for 2009/2010 is about $130.000; it goes to $210.000 in 2010/2011, $460.000 in 2011/2012 and $550.000 in 2012/2013. That is, before Streit makes her recommendation and before hiring additional police force.



“One of the problems of our revenue stream is that we do not have a diversified revenue base and are very vulnerable to State take-away,” analyses the Director, 40% of the town’s revenue comes from property taxes. In fact, the Town gets 5cents of every dollar paid in property tax, meaning that this revenue stream depends on what the other administrations give up and the rate of increase of the tax itself is not in the hands of the town either. Same problem with Moraga second most important revenue stream, sales tax, where only 1c on a dollar stays local. “We need to look at sources of revenue that will allow us to control our income stream,” believes Streit. She mentions among other sources license tax or building permits, At this time, with only working on savings and trying to find money for additional police officers, she is pessimistic, “if no other income sources are found in the short term, the reality is that we will have to do lay offs.” This would necessarily mean a lower level of service for residents, with possibly longer periods of time to wait for permits, less maintenance in public grounds, less recreation…



The Council favors a dynamic approach, as Council member Chew puts it, “I support looking at ways to cut expenses and the possibility of a "Revenue Enhancement Task Force" to explore ways to increase revenue.” The city of Orinda recently launched such a task force. Mayor Lynda Deschambault proposed that such a body be formed in Moraga. “Rather than focusing on cutting programs and opportunities, it makes more sense to focus our energy on identifying ways to increase our revenue generation.” She would like to see a brainstorming process where different options would be studied. It could include bringing back permitting and processing in town, adding a business license fee, additional revenue from events and recreation, grants or selling of property. Town Manager Tashiro recently met with Orinda to discuss the project, the Town Council will have to vote on it.