Page 8 June 15, 2017 City Council from front page “It was like going to our employees and asking them to pay out of their pockets to keep the City open for business,” Shadbehr said of the difficult negotiations that had to take place to begin turning the financial fortunes around. “Time and time again, that wasn’t easy. The only thing I was doing this for was for the love of my city, for our employees, for the homeland that I adopted more than three decades ago.” Shadbehr noted that for many years, the Council continued to attempt to run the City like a business. “We are [a business] in the sense of cutting costs, but we can’t be like a business because business is profit-driven. We cannot make profit—we’re a public service agency,” he said. “That comment couldn’t really fully apply.” Compounding matters are federal cuts in grants including the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) that would completely eliminate the graffiti removal program and greatly impact code enforcement in Hawthorne. “There’s a barrage of other cuts including energy, housing and other public service programs,” Shadbehr said. “I don’t know what the domino effect of this will be on the state because each time there is a federal cut, the State passes it to us.” Shadbehr also introduced a study that compared Hawthorne’s property values and taxes with other cities--something he refers to as essentially like a municipal GDP. “Hawthorne has significantly less per capita general fund revenue than surrounding cities,” he said. “For every resident in Hawthorne, the City only has $687 in revenue annually to use for important city services and public safety.” In comparison, that total is $224 less per resident than Gardena and $303 less than Inglewood. Torrance and Redondo Beach bring in close to double Hawthorne’s per capita revenue--and per capita for Manhattan Beach, Culver City and El Segundo are exponentially higher. “It is important to mention that some of these cities have much higher utility user taxes than Hawthorne,” Shadbehr said. “For example, Inglewood and Compton are 10 percent. Culver City is 11 percent. Hawthorne is only at five percent.” Shadbehr also laid out what would happen if the City did not take any corrective action. The results show that in 2020 Hawthorne will “be in the same situation as we were in 2015.” In 2015, the City had only $7.3 million left in the cash balance and a $6.3 million structural deficit. The City ended up laying off 24 employees and reversed all raises and promotions. “In the past, Council has always kicked the problem down the road to a future city council. If we don’t do anything by 2020, we will be heading in the same direction as we were heading in 2015,” Shadbehr said. “Complete depletion of our cash balance.” Residents in attendance advocated strongly for the public to pass the increase in November so that doesn’t happen. “This tax stays in the city and this tax supports our people,” Carey said. • Lennox School District-Media Release
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