Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Long Beach City Council kicked off its 2011-12 budget talks last week, after city officials proposed a spending plan that includes no tax levy increase and maintains all current services, although some council members and residents criticized a number of city officials’ raises, police overtime and increasing rates and fees.
At the May 17 council meeting, the first of two public hearings on the budget, City Manager Charles Theofan said that the $83.9 million proposal — $4.7 million larger than the current spending plan — makes no reduction in personnel and would utilize $1 million of the city’s reserve fund to avert a tax levy increase, reducing the fund’s balance from $3.8 million to $2.87 million. The budget passed by a 3-2 vote on Tuesday.
Theofan said that the city saved money when it offered an early-retirement incentive to Civil Service employees last year. He added that spending has been reduced through consolidation of departments while the city seeks new revenues and alternative sources of funding for renovations of the deteriorating Recreation Center and upgrades of the sewer treatment plant, among other facilities.
In 2011-12, city services, such as the MLK Childcare Center and Magnolia Community Center daycare programs, would remain intact.
Theofan said that in a tough economy, city officials followed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lead by tapping into the reserve fund to ease the burden on taxpayers. “It was particularly challenging this year because we faced large increases to our contribution to the state pension fund [and] to the medical insurance premiums,” he said, “and the steep decline in some of the mortgage tax and state tax revenue.”
City Councilman John McLaughlin raised concerns about police and Fire Department overtime pay, saying that the city regularly runs over budget. For example, in 2009-10, overtime salaries in the Police Department swelled the budgeted from $969,000 to $1.2 million.
While the city is budgeting $750,000 for police overtime in 2011-12, some city official said that this year those costs, currently budgeted at $450,000, have already more than doubled. McLaughlin asked Theofan to provide a specific plan to ensure that the city wouldn’t go beyond its budgeted amount next year.
