Pasadena City Council Monday, June 15, unanimously approved a balanced $1.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2027.
After the dust settled on a process that began late last year and included several public hearings and department presentations at the City Council committee level, city officials reported about $43,000 left over. Included in the overall budget is a $383 million general fund budget.
Councilmember Rick Cole said he felt queasy about how much up to the line the city has planned to spend in the next fiscal year given economic headwinds.
“At some point we’re going to come to the place, and I think we’re at that place, where even things that we like, that we need, that we appreciate, that provide a valuable service are going to have to be left on the cutting room floor,” Councilmember Rick Cole said.
On Monday, city officials presented some additions to the budget after the latest public hearing at the June 8 meeting. They included $2 million to fund the planning for a year-round homeless shelter, transitioning parking enforcement to fully in-house with the city and an adjustment in the health department to fund a full-time health officer.
Councilmember Steve Madison advocated for increasing the number of police traffic officers instead of adding to parking enforcement.
“Our residents are not clamoring for more parking tickets, they’re not clamoring for more parking enforcement,” Madison said. “We need more police officers and firefighters in this community.”
The approval came with direction for members of city staff to return with ways to increase staffing for police and fire services. Mayor Victor Gordo pointed to the coming 2028 Summer Olympic games as a chief reason to bolster public safety sooner rather than later.
Council members commended the efforts from their staff to adjust from the original budget proposed last month to better address the City Council’s priorities, but said there was still a long way to go and hoped to see mid-fiscal year adjustments be brought back to the City Council.
“We still have a ways to go so I’m taking you at your word that we’re going to get back potentially some major shifts on the budget in the next couple of months to the tune of a few million dollars I gather,” Councilmember Jason Lyon said.