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The City Council held its first budget workshop on March 24, between a closed session meeting, and the regular council meeting.
The budget discussion focused on city goals.
The meeting lasted about one hour and 19 minutes. The council did not take any formal action. The next two budget workshops will be held at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 6, and Thursday, May 8. The council is currently scheduled to adopt the budget on June 9.
Finance Director/Treasurer Barbara Arenado gave the staff presentation. She described the budget as “a flowing budget”.
Public comments included calls for the council to watch the budget, to make the economy the council’s priority, and to help the local cable TV station. (See “SBTV-3 board seeks upgrades and a manager” at sunnews.org)
The following is not a transcript but highlights from the meeting.
Presentation
Arenado went over the budget timeline and performance measures.
“This year we are adding this study session along with the video and public communication goals and objectives and workshops before final council adoption in June,” Arenado said.
“All staff are actively engaged all year long in delivering a wide range of services to the community,” Arenado said.
The performance measures included included a projected 2,318 citations to be issued in 2025-26. In the same year, staff proposes to issue 1,800 building permits; 4,700 building inspections, 210 code enforcement cases, 18 miles of sewer pipelines to be cleaned, 700 surf lessons, 390 pickleball memberships, 1,800 senior transportation participants, 299 lifeguard rescues, 448 stingray medical aids.
Arenado said planning and applications have “surged”.
“City facility work requests have steadily risen,” she said.
“Calls for graffiti removal have more than doubled, indicating the implication of MySealBeach app is successful as well as a greater focus on public space cleanliness,” Arenado said.
“In our yearly audit, we have had zero auditor recommended adjustments, demonstrating the city’s commitment to accuracy and sound financial management,” Arenado said.
Goals
Staff has established nine goals:
Goal #1 – Strengthen Public Safety Initiatives
Goal #2 – Ensure Fiscal Stability and Efficiency in Governance
Goal #3 – Attract and Retain a Highly Skilled Workforce
Goal #4 – Assess and Maintain Infrastructure
Goal #5 – Promote and Enhance a Strong Local Economy
Goal #6 – Expanding Strategic Technology Investments
Goal #7 – Improve Outreach and Engagement
Goal #8 – Ensure Continued Excellence in City Services
Goal #9 – Protect our Coastal Environment and Resources
“This year we took a different approach, one that focused on collaboration from within instead of hiring an outside consultant. We engaged staff across all departments. We started with 11 board goals, presented 44 different versions and gathered feedback from city staff,” Arenado said.
She said staff members were asked to come back with six to eight goals and nine were ultimately selected.
Arenado went over each of the goals.
Goal #1 – Strengthen Public Safety Initiatives.
“Funding has been allocated in the midyear revitalization funds to update the Automated License Plate Reader Program for parking enforcement,” Arenado said.
“Next, we are prioritizing our ongoing training for our safety personnel, ensuring maintaining the highest standards,” Arenado said.
“This includes the upgrade of body armor the introduction of defensive tactics training and the enhancement of our Emergency Management capabilities,” Arenado said.
She said Seal Beach was implementing data-driving policing initiatives and reinforcing strong partnerships with neighboring cities and the counties,” Arenado said.
District Three Councilwoman/Mayor Lisa Landau said she was very passionate about bringing back the Neighbor for Neighbor program. “I think that we can all agree that Neighbor for Neighbor program has shown its worth in Seal Beach,” Landau said.
“At a minimum you get the opportunity to meet new neighbors or reacquaint yourself with neighbors you haven’t talked to in a while,” Landau said.
“However I believe the most important aspect of neighbor for neighbor program is having a support system when an emergency strikes while at the same time helping reduce crime in your neighborhood it’s the reason um that I’ve asked Chief [Michael] Henderson to pursue ways to expand the program creating a town where neighbors look out for each other,” Landau said.
Henderson gave a presentation on Neighbor for Neighbor at the regular council meeting.
District Four Councilwoman Patty Senecal asked: “Is there anything in here that talks about having a police officer on a bike or walking down the Main Street?”
Henderson said every summer the Police Department fields a two-person community oriented policing team on the weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
“Their specific focus is uh not only for high visibility um but to also address the influx of visitors that we received to the city and they’re trained to deploy on bicycles. Also, we have an all-terrain vehicle that they use as well as a four-wheel drive truck so this is a program that’s been in effect for many years and we will continue it,” Henderson said.
Landau said she’d had a lot of discussions with people about how the police used to know the name of every kid who got in trouble. “I think we’re missing that a little bit,” Landau said.
“I think there are ways we can explore to enhance police interaction with the community,” Henderson said.
“I think people also want to know who their police officer is in their neighborhood, so that is something we can absolutely pursue,” Henderson said.
Goal #2 – Ensure Fiscal Stability and Efficiency in Governance.
“We are actively pursuing new revenue opportunities,” Arenado said.
According to Arenado, the completion of Measure GG provided essential funding to maintain city services and those that were cut last year. She was referring to the half-cent sales tax that went into effect Tuesday, April 1 of this year.
“CIP adjustments have already been approved by council in our fee schedule,” Arenado said.
She said a new study should be conducted every few years to ensure “alignment” with cost recovery.
“We strengthened budget transparency through the introduction of our new budget video in addition to public study sessions ensuring greater accessibility and understanding of the budget process for our community,” Arenado said.
District Two Councilman Ben Wong said he liked the fact Seal Beach wants to be fiscally stable and efficient.
“But I think the big thing we should be focusing on is definitely economic and fiscal development,” Wong said.
He said he wanted to see if the city could pursue billboards and lifeguard signage and look at revenue opportunities there.
Senecal, referring to the number of checks issued. (According to slide 11 Seal Beach staff estimates 5,511 will be issued by end of fiscal year 2024-25.) Senecal wanted to know if those were physical checks.
“We do both,” Arenado said.
“We’re working toward getting rid of checks,” Arenado said.
Senecal said she did not see a contract management system.
“Something that is even accessible to the public,” Senecal said.
“I would think that’s the financial responsibility of our finance people,” said District Five Councilman/Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Steele.
“They’re not writing checks will-nilly. They’re writing it out against purchase orders which are against contracts and all of that is in our financial system right now, I presume,” Steele said.
“Mayor pro tem, you are correct,” Arenado said.
Steele said having a database of contracts was an extra step.
According to Arenado and City Clerk Gloria Harper, that information is available on the city’s Laserfiche where the city lists all current contracts. (Reporter’s note: To browse city contracts in alphabetical order, visit the city website, go to the city clerk’s page, click on the link to e-records in Laserfiche, click on “browse” and click on the folder City Clerk and then go to the folder for Contracts & Agreements.)
“Councilman [Tom] Moore and I talked about that last year,” Landau said. She said wrangling that seemed too much. She suggested prioritizing contracts so the city knows which one they can slash.
“We are still working on cleaning up the contracts,” Harper said.
“What isn’t current we would put in an archive file,” Harper said.
Goal #3 – Attract and Retain a Highly Skilled Workforce. “While we’ve made great strides, our goal is to continuously improve and be even better moving forward to achieve this,” Arenado said.
“It’s essential we conduct and classification and compensation study ensuring our staff is fairly compensated,” Arenado said.
She said the city was strengthening the workforce through partnerships with organizations like the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority
“We are also developing an internal mentorship program alongside the trainer initiative to provide knowledge-based sharing and leadership development,” Arenado said.
She said staff was striving to conduct an organization wide assessment to identify staffing needs.
According to Interim City Manager Gallegos, there were inklings of an employer’s market. “That is true, but it’s slower in the public sector,” Gallegos said.
“It’s not all about compensation, it’s about the culture here and creating a good culture so that folks want to be here in Seal Beach,” Gallegos said.
Goal #4 – Assess and Maintain Infrastructure. “This goal is to review and update our Master plans and assessment management systems when physically feasible with special attention to our city fleet and pavement conditions. We are also strengthening our partnerships with regional and state in entities to implement broader initiatives and pursuing external funding for critical infrastructure projects also optimizing our existing resources,” Arenado said.
No one said anything, so Arenado moved on.
Goal #5 – Promote and Enhance a Strong Local Economy. “Our fifth goal is to address economic vitality in our community. we are looking to develop strategies to support local businesses and drive economic development, including building stronger partnerships with local organizations,” Arenado said.
She said the city was continuing to progress on the General Plan updates and advance to local coastal program. (If approved, the LCP would transfer some of the Coastal Commission’s permitting authority to Seal Beach.)
“Staff is moving forward with developing an economic plan for the Lifeguard headquarters and creating a preliminary vision for the greater Pier/Main Street area that will enhance our community’s economic landscape,” Arenado said.
(In 2020, the cost of replacing the Lifeguard headquarters was put at $9.5 million. See “Seal Beach officials looking at renovation or reconstruction of Lifeguard Headquarters” at sunnews.org.)
According to Arenado, staff is looking at the 2028 Olympics and the opportunities they could potentially bring.
“Supporting our businesses right now especially in light of the nine vacancies on Main Street,” Landau said.
“I think enhancing a strong local economy, not only building partnerships with our local businesses but our local organizations, our local service clubs, the Chamber, Rotary, and also bringing in the community,” Landau said.
“I think if we can create stronger partnerships amongst all these groups, I think we will have a lot better chance of success,” Landau said.
Senecal commented on the 2028 Olympics. “We can be part of the Olympics and see what kind of economic activities we can draw into the city and coordinate with Long Beach and Hutington Beach, assuming they get all their venues,” Senecal said.
She said she had talked to the Chamber about partnering as well.
Senecal said Seal Beach could partner with them and with other service organizations.
She said there would be a huge influx of people and traffic (during the Olympics).
Community Development Director Alexa Smittle said she appreciated all the comments. She said there were multiple approaches that would have to be taken, some short term and some long term.
“But we have a lot of old planning documents here” Smittle said.
“We’re coming up on time to re-look at a number of those policies,” Smittle said.
Goal #6 – Expanding Strategic Technology Investments.
“We’re making significant progress in this area,” Arenado said.
“Already last year we successfully completed a city-wide phone system upgrade, laying the foundation for our future improvements,” Arenado said.
She said the city was advancing the request for proposal process for the information technology master plan.
“We are also exploring emerging technology including artificial intelligence to enhance city programs,” Arenado said.
She said the city was investing in public safety through technology such as researching the viability of using Starlink for emergency communications and updating outdated digital computers.
“At some point our website could use a refresh update,” Senecal said. She suggested a more interactive, more user-friendly website.
“I just want to get it on the list,” Senecal said.
“As part of the IT Master Plan, we are absolutely going to be letting our consultant partner know that we have concerns about the website as well,” Smittle said.
“It is quite dated and even the technology behind it is much older than some of our neighboring cities websites,” Smittle said.
“We have extensive needs in IT,” Smittle said.
Goal #7 – Improve Outreach and Engagement. Arenado said the goal was to continue communications across social media. She also brought up providing public access to city services through the MySealBeach app, emergency notifications, and strengthening partnerships with the Joint Forces Training Base and Naval Weapons Station by establishing regular communications and meetings.
Landau said she wanted to get the word out to the community about the MySealBeach app.
She thought it streamlined things for public works and gave a faster response time.
Gallegos said the city had an e-newsletter, which he last heard had about 7,000 subscribers.
He said the city had a good following on social media.
“I think we’ve been doing a fairly good job in that space,” he said.
He said the city was focused on having those two-way conversations.
Senecal said she was getting to know the MySealBeach app.
On that day, there was a power outage in College Park East. She said the MySealBeach app wasn’t telling residents to go to Edison.
She suggested integrating with other service providers in the future.
Wong said he loved the MySealBeach app. As for social media, he said: “I’d be interterested to see if the city has maybe a two or three-person team that might be interested in doing more social media posts,” Wong said.
“The Seal beach PD outreach has been terrific,” Wong said.
“I think we could leverage off of that,” Wong said.
He said the city could definitely improve on getting the word out about important meetings.
Gallegos thanked him for those comments. “Our staff is small and we do what we can, but generally we use technology to be more efficient and social is one of those ways, so we’ll continue to improve in this,” Gallegos said.
Arenado said the city has social media with each of the larger departments,, Marine Safety, Public Works, and Recreation.
Goal #8 – Ensure Continued Excellence in City Services. She said the city was encouraging staff participation and volunteer opportunities to foster a culture of engagement.
Arenado said the city would expand transportation operations for seniors.
She said Community Services was looking to enhance adult sports and contract classes. She also said the city was enhancing the online reservation system.
Landau said she wanted to balance technology for residents that might be tech-saving or just frustrated.
“That’s really important to me, too,” said Gallegos.
He said one-third of the city lives in Leisure World.
He said Seal Beach has a pop-up City Hall at most of the large events in the city. “There are many ways to contact us. We’re really not just a Monday through Friday organization,” Gallegos said.
“We’re really 365, 24/seven,” he said.
Goal #9 – Protect our Coastal Environment and Resources. This included dealing with San Gabriel River trash and restoring local wetlands. District One Council Member Joe Kalmick said the city was actively engaged on the Los Cerritos Wetlands and the San Gabriel River.
In other news, Kalmick said he thought 2028 was when the Army Corps of Engineers was planning the next sand replenishment project.
Public Works Director Iris Lee said the Army Corps was budgeting the project for fiscal 28.
