Our Town: Tough times in 2005 Our Town: Tough times in 2005 (December 29, 2004)

by Don Kazak

Cathy Kroymann turned over the gavel to new school board President John Barton Dec. 14. Palo Alto Mayor Bern Beecham expects to do the same thing to Vice Mayor Jim Burch Jan. 10.

In both cases, the hands that figuratively hold the gavels may be sweating a little before 2005 is done and gone.

It will not be a rosy dawn when the new year breaks for either the city or the school district.

The city is facing a $5.2 million budget deficit for 2005-06, while the school district's much smaller budget deficit is projected at $600,000, to be covered by reserves or a hoped-for 1 percent boost in property-tax revenues. Both gaps follow major recent cuts: $1.5 million this year for the city and $6.5 million for the district over the last two years.

"If this were a rainy day, I could see using our reserves," Beecham said. "But I think this is more of a climate change." The city and district won't have to approve their budgets until June, but the projected deficits loom like storm clouds over everything else.

The city's crunch comes when it has several big-ticket items on its wish-list, including new storm drains, a new police station, plus possibly a new central library.

"We can't have it all, so we have to decide what is more important," Councilwoman Dena Mossar said. "The next round of budget cuts will be painful.

"The community will have to come to terms in prioritizing its desires. Until then, we'll be struggling .... I think it's going to be a tough year."

Part of the difficulty is that there are conflicting ideas about what the city should be doing, and sometimes those differences are loud.

"Everything seems to be adversarial these days," Burch said. "That's the big concern to me."

In January, the council will set its Top Five goals for 2005 in an attempt to clarify directions. Clear leadership from the council will be needed for the community to agree on the council's goals and vision for the future.

That clarity of vision has been lacking in the recent past. In 2002, the council haggled over the details of the library bond measure up until the 11th hour. Not surprisingly, the ballot measure lost.

Councilwoman Hillary Freeman doesn't mind differences of opinion, as long as the differences aren't personalized.

"We are in a very participatory, vocal area, and all conflict doesn't have to be adversarial. A lot of it has to do with what our perception of conflict is," she said.

Things aren't any more cheery at 25 Churchill Ave., headquarters of the Palo Alto Unified School District. Losing Measure I on Nov. 2 by the narrowest of margins -- about 225 votes -- was a body blow to the district. Board members Dec. 14 rightfully noted that more than 22,000 voters did support Measure I. But that's like losing a baseball game by one-run -- it's still a loss.

The board agreed to base its next budget on voters approving a new parcel tax next June. The district's deficit, like the city's, could result in layoffs, only this time it will hit teachers, possibly 60 to 90 teachers, which would result in increased class sizes.

Without a new parcel tax, the district could be in a world of trouble next year, and beyond.

One potential crisis on the horizon is that the 12 elementary schools are pretty much full up.

"We are about to outgrow our facilities," Kroymann said, citing hundreds more students expected.

Opening another school would mean a $540,000 a year hit for the district, in addition to the loss of $650,000 annual revenue from leasing the surplus school, Garland, to a private school. Elementary math: No parcel tax, no new school.

But if it's any solace, things are grim all over, budget-wise. Liz Kniss, a former Palo Alto mayor and former president of the Palo Alto school board, will take the gavel Jan. 11 as the new chair of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. She also faces budget cuts. The county has cut its general fund 25 percent in the last three years, impacting human services heavily.

"We've cut off the branches," Kniss said. "We're cutting into the bark now."

Happy new year, so to speak.

Weekly Senior Staff Writer Don Kazak can be emailed at dkazak@paweekly.com.

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