Santa Barbara City Council to hold special meeting to replenish emergency reserves

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) The city of Santa Barbara County is getting closer to approving a budget and has not given up on trying to protect depleted reserves.

The council clashed over reserves and their next $257 million plus general fund budget .

The Santa Barbara city council took some actions on Tuesday night.

The city will not hire or fill certain positions and intends to re-appropriate $1 million of HOME funds to the Local Housing Trust Fund.

Then the city administrator asked them to hold a special meeting next Tuesday at 10 a.m and the council agreed.

"We are very lucky that our budget is precariously balanced, but we have not met our reserve obligations, that delta between what we are supposed to have in reserves and what we actually have in reserves," said Meagan Harmon who is finishing out her time on the council this year.

Finance Director Keith DeMartini told the council where things stand during countless questions.

'We have been using our reserves over the last couple of years, as it is getting more and more expensive with inflation and some of our revenues have not been performing as well as they historically have, so we are below our disaster reserve requirement by approximately $6 million to help us balance our budget."

Next week they'll be discussing the reserves and whether to freeze 3 unfilled Santa Barbara Police Department positions that could save the budget $576,000.

Police Chief Kelly Gordon said staffing was the same 20 years ago.

City staff said when work is complete on the new police station some sales tax measure funding will be able to be used for other things including future fire station improvements.

The council intends to vote on a final budget on June 30the before the the council takes a July break.

For more information about the budget visit, https://santabarbaraca.gov