"$400,000 to replace furniture at the main library and $720,000 for a study for a downtown parking structure"

I'm constantly amazed at how Menlo Park thinks it has money to waste.

Next up, tackle all the outrageous pay raises and pension contributions that will choke the city for years to come.

“Councilman Ray Mueller expressed reservations about drawing so heavily upon the economic stabilization reserve fund because it would likely be a long time before the fund could be built back up and the city's economic hardships are likely to get worse over the next year.

The council asked that City Manager Starla Jerome-Robinson and staff develop other budget plans that would rely less on reserve funds.”

Thank you Ray. Thank you City Council.

Has anyone been reading the daily police logs? They are readily available on the internet. Some days show 4-7 police events, often a barking dog or loud music.

Would it be too outlandish to reduce police and fire staff? They are drawing a full salary yet have so few calls.

menlorez:

The city doesn't have a fire department. We live in Menlo Park Fire Protection District.

You can bet as the SIP gets lifted you will see calls for service for the police go up. That's not a place to cut.

The revenue loss is estimated and if you understood how and by who the projections were made, your head would spin.

The amount of money in the city reserve fund is a very large number. It is also murky and not transparent to anyone.

If you are not going to use reserve funds during this pandemic emergency, when will you?

@fakenews, you sound like you might have inside knowledge. Do you work at the City? It would be normal to pretty anxious about the budget as a City employee. The article says the City Council isn’t objecting to using reserve funds but is worried about how much and how fast. That sure seems prudent to me.

This would be a great time to make a single county fire department and single metro police department. Think of how much could be saved!

"This would be a great time to make a single county fire department and single metro police department."

Absolutely and include a County wide OES that serves everybody and embraces Emergency Service volunteers and you will BOTH improve service and reduce costs.

Doors shut in March and not reopening until June, perhaps longer? Ther must be huge payroll savings. I’m surprised the city is having money troubles. Closed for one quarter of a year and no payroll savings? What’s payroll? $40 million? That’s $10,000,000 in savings. The report has a much lower number like $2,000,000. I don’t understand. Where’s the money?

"Doors shut in March and not reopening until June, perhaps longer? Ther must be huge payroll savings"

You assume that the City employees were laid off.

Remember the City of Menlo Park government is Staff Centric, not Citizen Centric.

I doubt that a single employee has been laid off, hence no salary savings.

Surprised? You shouldn't be.

I’d be curious to compare our financial situation with cities of similar size in the Bay Area so we’re not viewing this in a vacuum. There was a great piece on NPR this week of how many mid-size cities are and will continue to struggle. We’re not alone in this. Let’s do research, be open minded and get creative. Bouncing back from this will require a community effort, just like getting through this has. #OneMenloPark

Three quarters of a million dollars for a study?! make it stop. Just put that Money towards the new parking garage, or scrap the garage. But wasting it on another study is unconscionable. Come on City Council, do the right thing and make these decisions yourselves without wasting our tax dollars.