Chula Vista City Councilman Mike Diaz told a near capacity crowd at City Hall Tuesday night there would be no layoffs from the city payroll.
“We’re not going to be cutting any positions,” he said while Mayor Mary Casillas Salas looked on during the council meeting. “I think that’s what people wanted to hear.”
What those in attendance also heard was a collective sigh of relief followed by a round of applause from the public and city staff.
Diaz’s proclamation allayed the anxiety and fears of those who had been following the city’s budget proposal when details where made public during a May council meeting.
Supporters of the arts and public safety appeared to have the most invested in the financial health of Chula Vista and the way it would be maintained.
For years the labor leaders and executive management in the fire department have said the public agency has been drastically understaffed, putting at risk the lives of civilians and department personnel during emergency calls.
At the same time proponents of the arts in Chula Vista, the second largest city in San Diego County with nearly 250,000 residents and a few minutes drive from the international border with Mexico, bemoaned the absence of a thriving arts and culture community.
It was seen as a step in the right direction when the council last year approved the Cultural Arts Master Plan, a blueprint that would establish strategies for developing and promoting a creative environment in the city along with key partnerships in the public and private sectors.
The city’s commitment to culture went as far as devoting one staff person to the task, manager Lynnette Tessitore.
But as often is the case when public revenue is scarce and balanced budgets are wanted, decisions between what is wanted and what is needed must be made and often arts programs are seen as superfluous and expendable.
But this year the City Manager’s Office found just enough money between a hoped for federal grant, money from a recent tax increase and savings from future retirements within the city to not only keep the city’s one-person arts program in tact but to add more people to the fire department and allot money for equipment and upgrades.
Council members, relieved they did not have to deliver bad news to their constituents, noted that the city still suffers from lack of a stable and lucrative revenue stream.
It is a familiar admonition. While the city still waits for windfalls from the development of the bayfront, which remains years away, and the added tax revenue from housing and university development in the east, Chula Vistans will face hard decisions unless they can find a way to add to their revenue stream. Where the money comes from in the immediate future remains to be seen.
