The Million Dollar Bash: A Behind the Scenes Look at Budget Decisions

Tuesday, June 22- Things, the council says, are getting strange.

It's hours before the city council votes on a record $340 million budget, and a tiny fraction - probably less than a million dollars -- of the total is wreaking havoc and fueling speculation.

"This is the most unsettled budget hearing I've ever walked into," said Councilman Paul Rosenstein, a member of the council (super) minority, who is voting on his seventh budget. "In the past I would say there's often a flurry, and things start falling into place. But it just seems to me at this point it's really unsettled."

"It's so unsettled at this moment," another councilman agreed, "one council member called me and said, 'Is there a full moon or what?"

So what's the big deal? After all, it's only a million bucks, and the city's got tons of cash, enough for 2,700 new trees, "diversity" training for 200 employees, two more electric shuttles, two bicycle racks on every bus, fresh paint for parking lot bathrooms, three more zoning enforcers and a camera that can see in the dark.

But the schools suddenly need a million dollars - the board miscalculated by 145 students - and they want the council to pitch in whatever they can afford from their record pot.

The five-member SMRR super majority agrees the city should give the schools money. The problem is no one seems to know how much to fork over (though they know it'll have to be for more than a year) or where to make the cuts.

"I think that we can find something to help," said Mayor Pam O'Connor. "I don't think it would be a million dollars. If we give them this money and we take it away are we going to have set ourselves up to disappoint parents?"

"I'm not in the grapevine," said Rosenstein, "but I haven't heard where the million dollars is going to come from," adding word had it "SMRR folks had settled on a million for the schools."

"I don't think there's a final answer," Councilman Michael Feinstein said. "We're going to be doing it up there."

"The school stuff throws a wrinkle at the end," a fourth councilman said. "And the fluoridation thing coming out at the last minute is mind boggling to me."

Fluoridation?

"I will ask that money be allocated for fluoridation," said Rosenstein, who acknowledges it's a thorny issue that causes "people to descend on whatever city's doing it.

"It used to be the right wing that thought it was a communist conspiracy, now it's the environmentalists."

Rosenstein wants to bring the debate down to an objective - scientific - level, and so, besides inviting a PTA head and a nurse from the schools to attest to the benefits of fluoridation, Rosestein has also invited "the guy who's director of dentistry for LA County."

Rookie Councilman Richard Bloom thinks it's a subject better left for another time. But if the question of fluoridation is broached, the father of two has some first-hand thoughts to contribute.

"The question is, 'What is the best way to provide it?" Bloom asked. If you put it in the water supply, it hits the entire population, and not just the kids growing teeth. If you provide it in pill form, what about the poor folks, how do they pay for it?

And have you analyzed the cost of putting it in the water supply? Bloom asks.

"It's remarkable how much money is involved here," he said. "There's $431,000 in capital cost to design and construct a chemical feed and storage facility, and $30,000 a year to keep it going."

But even if the council decides it can't afford to bankroll fluoridation in this year's budget, where does it come up with the money? Where do you cut?

At this point, it's all speculation (There's even speculation a school board member will ask the council not to give money.)

The Bayside District recently asked for $1 million to paint the bathrooms and lobbies in two downtown public parking structures, and the council thought it was a good idea, so that may not be a good thing to cut.

Maybe the Pier Restoration Corp. Wasn't each council member notified that staff would present it's pier budget on 6/22? (The Pier Restoration Corp., sources said, was concerned enough to call a meeting Monday night to amend budget requests but couldn't hold it because there wasn't any public notice.)

The mayor suggested cuts could be made in "some positions that were going to be added or projects on a back burner." It's kind of like a household deciding, "Do you buy the new car this year, or use the old one and wait?"

"99 percent of the budget is no problem. What we're talking about is less than 1 percent," O'Connor said. "But that less than 1 percent will take a lot of push and pull and high drama."

"I still got a lot of questions," Rosenstein said. "I still haven't settled it in my own mind."

"It is going to be exciting," Feinstein said. "It's going to be a game."

It is said that every year the staff has a pool on how late the meeting will run. This year, a council member said, it's anybody's guess.

We guess you don't need a weatherman to tell you it'll probably be a long night and early morning. That's why, before packing for the meeting, we took our potatoes down to get mashed…

… then headed on over to the million dollar bash