As the City of Turlock heads into yet another challenging budget year, the City Council and City Staff have worked hard to keep the spending deficit down. At Tuesday’s meeting, an amended budget was passed that will lower the budget deficit for Budget Year 2011-2012 from $3,162,597 to $1,871,878.
City Manager Roy Wasden acknowledged that "this was made possible due to the efforts to reduce cost and the concessions made by city employees."
Additional amendments are expected in December once the 2010-2011 Budget closes.
In addition to reducing costs, many of the departments have been actively pursuing grants. The following items were approved as well:
Turlock Police Department – Authorizing acceptance of an allocation of funds, execution of a grant agreement, and appropriation of funds for the Federal FY 2010-11 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funds from the United States Department of Justice, Office of Criminal Justice Program, in the amount of $41,317. Turlock Police intend to allocate the 2011 JAG funds to purchase, install, and implement better field technologies that will help reduce data entry and processing times.
Housing Program Services – Authorizing the submittal of an application to the California State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for funding under the Federal Emergency Shelter Grant (FESG); authorizing the execution of a standard HCD agreement if selected to receive such funding and any amendments and related documents necessary to participate in the FESG program. The Housing Program Services Department intends to partner with local non-profits that already provide these services to enhance services and to meet the matching fund requirement of the grant.
Parks, Recreation, and Public Facilities – Authorizing the submittal of an application with the “Together We Play” competitive grant contest. In the event the grant is awarded to Turlock, it provides the funding needed to install an "all inclusive" according to American Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements at Rotary Park that would be able to serve every child regardless of their abilities.
Other items of interest approved at the meeting included approving a Taxicab Driver Permit for Yellow Cab driver applicant Jimmy Davis, creation of a new one (1) new job classification for a Water Conservation Worker to work with Customer Service and Finance to better serve Water bill questions, and approving a Memorandum of Understanding between the Cities of Modesto, Ceres, Turlock and Hughson to form the East Stanislaus Regional Water Management Partnership (ESRWMP) to coordinate water resources planning in order to develop an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWMP) as required by SBx2-1 to obtain state funding for regional water-related projects.
