Council mulls voting selves 40% pay hike

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press June 21, 2000

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Only five citizens turned out Monday at a special workshop to review the city's $137.9 million proposed spending plan for the 2000-01 fiscal year.

And city department heads didn't drop any bombshells about how the city's money will be spent, and council members didn't suggest any changes to the document.

One change mentioned but not approved during Monday night's budget review is one that would raise the salaries of the city's three elected council members by 40%.

Since October 1993 council members have been paid $600 a month for their time and effort, except for the mayor, who has received $1,000 a month. Before the change, each member - including the mayor - received $540 a month, up from $400 a month in 1990.

Under state law, members of councils in cities with populations the size of Palmdale's, now 122,392, are eligible to receive raises of 5% a year, according to City Attorney Matt Ditzhazy.

Under a proposed change to be discussed at an upcoming meeting, the council will consider its stipends to account for eight years' worth of increases, Ditzhazy said.

That would give councilmen Mike Dispenza and sheriff's Lt. Rod Penner $840 a month and Mayor Jim Ledford $1,400 a month, beginning in November 2001.

Those elected this November would receive the same raises a year after taking office, he said, adding that the sum would help offset the council's out-of-pocket costs for taking care of city business.

Lancaster, with a population of 132,402 and a 2000-01 budget total of $129.4 million, pays its council members and mayor $600 each.

The Lancaster council last increased its pay from in April 1990, from $500 a month set in January 1986.

While the Palmdale City Council appears to be loosening its financial belt, Lancaster's council seems to be pulling its belt tighter, voting to eliminate the city's support for school crossing guards and a sheriff's elementary-school drugabuse prevention program.

During Palmdale's budget review, the council agreed to continue funding both those programs, but it skipped a discussion on city payments to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

With Penner unable to vote on changes to those payments because of state conflict-of-interest provisions, the council opted to eliminate them from Monday's discussion.

Under a resolution adopted in May, the city will continue paying the Sheriff's Department the same amount budgeted during fiscal 1999-2000 until December, when two new members of the council will be sworn into office.

The payments will allow the city to maintain its level of service until the council is legally empowered to ponder increases, said Terry Judge, commander of the Palmdale Sheriff's Station.

The only change until then will be to move two deputies out of a narcotics unit and into a patrol car, a decision reached in conjunction with City Manager Bob Toone, Judge said.

The department's contract with the city "is a running agreement" with no firm expiration date and subject to adjustment at any time, he said.

Most of the heads of the city's 11 departments said they were seeking only enough money to maintain service levels for programs and projects over the course of the coming fiscal year.

Overall, the city's General Fund spending, which finances those departments, will decrease slightly less than 1%, while the city's general fund income would increase less than 1% from fiscal 1999-2000.

That income could jump dramatically as new businesses begin pumping money into the local economy, Toone noted, naming the city's new Dillard's department store, Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, Linens 'n Things fabric shop, Barnes & Noble bookstore, a third Panda Express eatery, a Ross Dress For Less outlet, a second Staples business-supply store, a Party City store, a Sports Chalet sporting goods outlet and "a number of very good restaurants" currently in negotiation for space in the Antelope Valley Mall and The Marketplace plaza.

Bringing new paychecks and tax revenues to the city will be the SR Technics aircraft and U.S. Architectural Lighting plants; the expansion of the Braid fishing, Anderson-Barrows plumbing and Wise Software companies; the recently relocated Murphy Switch electronics firm; the John Jay and Marriott hotels; and an AV Hospital/L.A. County medical clinic and a Kaiser Permanente care center, Toone said.

He also named planned projects such as the construction of the New Entertainment movie-theater complex at Avenue P and Division Street, a new 60-bed hospital at Fifth Street West and Palmdale Boulevard, and the Rancho Vista Golf Course as potential revenue generators for the city.

Toone did not name a number of other pending projects, such as a second Wal-Mart planned for the city's east side as well as Community Redevelopment Agency efforts to attract construction of a Foreign Trade Zone warehouse, a Kawasaki motorcycle dealership, the Star World media-production facility, and an unnamed computer company.

Among the public projects named by Toone were renovations and improvements to the city's main library, its parks and recreation building, its senior center, and the Richard B. Hammack youth activity center, as well as the construction of its Youth Library, the Robert St. Clair Parkway, a new civil courthouse and new City Hall adjunct.

Upcoming projects include the renovation of the city's existing Public Works area, its RecordsManagement area, and the Palmdale Cultural Center, and the construction of new City Council chambers, a new sheriff's station and four new fire stations.

The city has obtained a 1/12thsize model of a Boeing B-2 Stealth bomber and an unassembled surplus Vought A-7 Corsair, both of which will be added to a collection of aircraft at the Plant 42 Heritage Airpark, Assistant City Manager Carol Seidl told the council.

A surplus McDonnell F-4 Phantom is slated for delivery within the next month, Seidl said.

"With the addition of the F-4, and once we've put the model of the B-2 on a display pole, we'd like to open that park," which adjoins the Blackbird Airpark at 25th Street East and Avenue P, she said.

At that point, the city's Heritage Airpark would have the B-2 model and four planes: The McDonnell F-4 Phantom, a North American Aviation F-100 Super Sabre, a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, and a Republic Aviation F-105 Thunderchief.

Public Works Director Steve Williams told the council he is applying for a state Department of Transportation matching grant that could save the city millions in landscaping costs.

Williams also noted that plans to add a second bridge on Avenue S, widening the effort to four lanes total, may be scrapped in favor of a preference by Caltrans to build a new overpass with six lanes.

The Avenue S widening project would include adding a second lane to the southbound offramp leading from the AV Freeway to Avenue S, he said.

The council is slated to consider adopting the plan on June 28.