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As Berkeley seeks to close an $8.9 million budget deficit, the City Council Tuesday voted to ensure that an unanticipated $3.4 million property tax windfall doesn’t bail out threatened programs. 

Following the advice of City Manager Phil Kamlarz, the council voted 7-2 (Olds, Worthington, no) to set $2.4 million to pay for a new police dispatch system. The remaining money would go to street repairs, technology upgrades, a match for a solar bond fund, a plan for the city to buy its own electricity instead of PG&E, and a lawsuit against UC Berkeley.  

The vote followed the narrow defeat of a competing proposal to postpone the decisions until June, when the city must adopt its budget. (Worthington, Moore, Spring and Anderson supported the delay.) 

Also, the council named Ying Lee to the Library Board of Trustees and gave its blessing to a Fire Department plan to save $1.1 million by periodically closing fire companies rather than by permanently shutting down one of its two fire trucks.  

The budget vote was a victory for City Manager Phil Kamlarz, who in two previous meetings failed to win council approval for his recommendations. Kamlarz has been adamant that the council should not spend the unexpected revenue to bail out city programs, a move he said would only delay painful cuts until next year. 

With the city scheduled to begin community budget workshops this week, opponents of the Kamlarz plan argued that it was too early to dedicate the money. 

“With one stroke here all of the community concerns would be moot,” said Councilmember Max Anderson. “It doesn’t build public confidence in what we’re doing.” 

Kamlarz replied, “My experience in this city is when we have community meetings, people are going to be asking to restore program cuts.” 

As a compromise measure the council agreed that each member would provide Kamlarz by June 14 with a list of programs they would like spared from deep cuts. That move angered councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Betty Olds, who feared the council would add pork to the budget that the city couldn’t afford. 

The bulk of the unexpected revenue ($2.4 million) will go to pay for the new police dispatch system. 

Of the $1 million to go to city upgrades and repairs, $200,000 would go to pay for a portion of a city centralized call center database, designed to give city operators access to information to answer residents’ questions without having to transfer them. 

According to a city report, last year the city received 17,114 calls for service, 62 percent of which had to be redirected. Seventeen percent of callers hung up instead of waiting for an answer. 

Kamlarz said the system would recoup the estimated $850,000 price tag for the database within four years and save $700,000 annually in future years by eliminating the need for nine positions. 

Councilmember Dona Spring questioned the plan based on previous technology improvements she didn’t think improved worker efficiency. “I would like to see an accounting of all the money we’ve spent on this and where it’s gone to,” she said. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak countered that by making staff more efficient, the council would have more money in the long run to pay for programs it doesn’t want cut. 

Fire Service 

Rather than closing one of the city’s two ladder truck companies this July to cut a required $1.1 million, the Fire Department has opted to close different service companies periodically throughout the year. 

The roving company closures will give department brass greater staffing flexibility and spread the effects of reduced service throughout the entire city, Chief Debra Pryor told the council. Since November, the city has closed a truck company in North Berkeley at night as a cost saving measure to balance this year’s budget.  

Response time for the truck company in South Berkeley to respond to a North Berkeley call has increased by two to four minutes during the closure, said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth. 

Under the fire department’s plan, up to two fire companies could be out of service at a given time, and minimum staffing levels would be reduced from 34 to 28. Closures would be targeted to occur during times of lower call volume and minimal fire danger, Pryor said.