More cuts would hit
police, mayor says

MARYSVILLE (3/5/03) -- Past economies have trimmed the city to a "lean and mean" $10.9 million a year operation, Mayor Dirk Helder said in an annual "state of the city" address Tuesday.

Any further reductions dictated by state budget cuts would likely force the city to pare down the police force, Helder warned.

Already facing a $170,000 budget deficit, projected state cuts -- which could translate to losses as high as $530,000 for the city -- could spell a coming shortfall greater than $700,000, Helder said.

Since 70 percent of the city's budget goes to staff payroll, cutbacks would affect all departments, including the so-called "third-rail" category of public safety employees, Helder said.

Altogether, the police payroll accounts for 60 percent of the city's entire budget, Helder reported.

Helder went on to recap city government's municipal accomplishments in 2002, including saving the troubled Gold Sox baseball team and losing $221,000 in the process.

But it was worth it, Helder said, noting that he could not recall an issue which has so impacted as the popular call for the city to "bring back baseball."

In the end, the city council decided, "We would be better off playing baseball than not playing baseball," Helder said.

Helder also touched on sale last year of the shuttered Marysville Hotel to developers hoping to turn he venerated five-story structure into combination senior housing facility and medical offices.

The city welcomed the prospect, Helder said, but if the new owners are unable to complete the restoration in a timely manner, the city should reserve the option of razing it, he added.

City staff now stands at 65 full-time employees. This is down from the high of 84 the city employed in 1995-96 when it officially handed over operation of the fire department to the California Department of Forestry in a cost-cutting move.

Looking ahead, the city must come up with at least 170 new housing units in the next several years, as its contribution to regional growth overseen by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.

That is a tall order for a 3.2-square-mile city with 59 miles of streets built and paved out to its permanent levees. Annexation -- a perennial issue in Marysville -- may be the only answer, Helder said.

"I just don't see the ground (for the additional construction being called for)," Helder said.