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Fueled by a healthy economic recovery, Palo Alto kicked off its budget season this week on a buoyant note with a plan to bolster fire stations, enhance local parks and add 20 full-time positions to City Hall as part of a $1-billion spending plan.
The budget, which the City Council is set to approve next month, represents a 2.7% increase in expenditures from the current year, reflecting recent growth in major revenue sources and the council’s ambition to restore and, in some cases, exceed pre-pandemic service levels. City Manager Ed Shikada formally presented the document to the council on May 6 and the council’s Finance Committee held two all-day meetings on May 7 and 8 to review every chapter of the document.
The proposed budget includes a $303.5 million general fund, which pays for most city services not related to utilities. That’s up from $279.6 million in fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30.
The budget reflects both the resurgence of property, sales and hotel tax revenues after a pandemic downturn and the addition of new revenue sources. These include Measures K and L, which the voters approved in 2022 and which, respectively, create a business tax and ratify the council’s historical practice of transferring money from utilities to the general fund. Thanks in part to these funds, the budget authorizes a staff of 1,083 full-time positions, up from 1,063 in the current year and from 1,018 in the prior year.
According to the budget, revenues from major tax categories had increased by $12.2 million, or 7.8%, going from $156 million in the current budget to $168.2 million in 2025.
Palo Alto’s library visitors will be among the beneficiaries of this economic resurgence. Library hours, which were curtailed during the pandemic, have now been expanded so that the two largest libraries — Mitchell Park and Rinconada — are open seven days per week. The budget also allows the downtown and College Terrace branches to be open five days a week and the Children’s Library to be open six days per week.
Library Director Gayathri Kanth said the library system is also planning to expand initiatives relating to artificial intelligence, sustainability and diversity and inclusion. Kanth noted that 80% of the city’s population owns a library card, which is one of the highest rates a system can have. This is bolstered by the partnership between the libraries and the Palo Alto Unified School District, which allows student library cards to function as Palo Alto library cards.
“We should be really proud of the service we’re providing with our libraries,” Kanth said during the May 7 review of the budget.
Park users will also benefit from the growing revenues, particularly when nature calls. According to the budget, new restrooms are planned for installation at Rinconada Park, Boulware Park, Ramos Park and near the fields at Cubberley Community Center. The city is also planning to install a bathroom near the Magical Bridge playground at Mitchell Park, city staff told the Finance Committee.
Eleanor Pardee Park is currently not on the list for bathroom installations in the immediate future, but that will likely change between now and next month, when the budget is adopted. In recent weeks, the council has been inundated with letters and public comments from residents who want to see a restroom installed at Pardee Park, which is in the Crescent Park neighborhood.
Nancy Kawakita, who lives in the neighborhood, noted that the lack of bathrooms creates limitations for park users. For example, the demonstration garden at Pardee Park currently cannot provide classes to children because of the lack of bathrooms.
“It’s a human need,” Kawakita told the committee at the May 7 hearing. “Benefits of the park restroom outweigh the few who are concerned about outsiders attracted to restrooms.”
The idea of installing bathrooms at Pardee Park hasn’t always been popular. Vice Mayor Ed Lauing, who formerly served on the Parks and Recreation Commission, observed that when he and his commission colleagues considered Pardee bathrooms in the past, the feedback from neighbors was overwhelmingly negative, with some raising concerns about bathrooms becoming a magnet for crime.
The Finance Committee questioned the initial decision not to prioritize Pardee Park for restrooms and recommended placing it in the queue, right after the forthcoming Mitchell Park bathroom installation.
The committee also endorsed the proposed changes in the Fire and Police departments, both of which are continuing their recovery from the massive cuts of 2020. The two departments and the Office of Emergency Services are set to see their budgets increase from $100.1 million to $111.7 million and see an uptick in staffing as they go from 247.2 full-time positions to 255.4 in the proposed budget.
The Fire Department is preparing to add staffing to Station 2 in the College Terrace neighborhood so that it could support a fire engine. Since the recent cuts, the station has been relying on two-person units that can respond to medical calls but that cannot support an engine, which requires three firefighters. The proposed budget would allow the department to staff the third position through overtime.
The change will improve the department’s ability to respond to fires in south Palo Alto, a key objective given that the fire station at Mitchell Park also doesn’t have a staffed fire engine. Currently the only fire engine that can assist with fires in south Palo Alto is the station at Barron Park, Fire Chief Geo Blackshird told the Finance Committee during the budget review..
“Having a fire station at Station 2, in College Terrace, gives another engine fairly quick access to the south end of town by ways of major thoroughfares, either El Camino Real or Oregon Expressway to Middlefield Road and to Alma Street,” Blackshire said.
The department still has 10 vacancies, Blackshire said. It recently made offers to eight firefighters in other agencies with the goal of getting them onboard before this summer.
The Police Department, meanwhile, is still in process of filling the positions that the council cut during the pandemic and restored a year ago. Chief Andrew Binder said the department has seven vacancies and five applicants going through the background-check process at the moment. The budget does not recommend any significant changes aside from an addition of one lieutenant position that was eliminated during the pandemic period.
That said, the department is preparing for a few changes based on council and community feedback. One area that will see additional investment is traffic enforcement. After eliminating its motorcycle-riding traffic team during the pandemic, the Police Department is looking to restore it in the coming weeks.
Currently, the police department has one motorcycle-riding sergeant in charge of traffic enforcement. Binder said he plans to assign two more officers to the traffic unit next month.
“This summer there will be three traffic units out there. We’re excited about that,” Binder said.
Another welcome addition is the restoration and expansion of the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team, a partnership between the city and the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services Department. Launched in December 2021, the PERT program teams up a police officer and a clinician for calls that involve mental health emergencies.
The program has been in limbo for the past 18 months as the county was looking for a new clinician to replace the one who had resigned. Binder said at the May 7 meeting that the city has been working with the county on filling the role and is confident that by the beginning of the summer, at least one clinician will be on board, allowing the program to resume.
Ultimately, the city is hoping to have two PERT teams operating in the city and providing coverage seven days per week. The council has budgeted for a second PERT police officer and Binder said he hopes to see a second clinician hired next year.
That said, the staffing in the police department remains below the pre-pandemic levels. The proposed budget calls for 87 sworn officer positions, five fewer than the 92 that the city had before the pandemic-era cuts. Among the areas that still have not been restored to former levels are the department’s detective division, which was cut back in 2020.
Binder said his priority is to fill the existing vacancies in the department before he requests new positions.
“It’s a gradual progression because I have the seven vacancies and I want to make sure that I’m being prudent about how I’m adding back and what I’m able to do,” Binder said.
With the Finance Committee reviewing the budget this week, the City Council plans to consider its recommendations on May 13. The city has also scheduled a community meeting on the proposed budget for May 15. The virtual meeting will begin at 6 p.m.
I think it is time to spend money on upgrades for the Baylands. The area around the Duck Pond is sadly neglected. Signage is way out of date and faded. We could have some great hiking trail maps and signs as well as signs with information. Additionally, portapotties are an insult not a facility.
I have been there and asked by other visitors where’s the nearest restroom, or even where’s the nearest coffee shop. When I tell them there aren’t any they seem surprised and compare to Mountain View Shoreline they are very disappointed. Probably next time they will go to Shoreline to hike and made to feel welcome.
Replacing Cubberley is not getting enough attention. Carving out a portion of the site for a modern gymnasium and health facility makes more sense than putting it a Greer Park. Putting some of the increased revenues toward that is more important than restoring some of the services we found we didn’t need during the pandemic.
So thrilled PA can go on a spending spree by continuing to raise our utility rates and that unfunded pension liabilities for new and current employees aren’t a problem.
super glad to hear about the library, possible bathroom at Pardee Park, and restoration of fire services.
The thought of trying to outwit the axiom “if you build it, they will come” as a reason to avoid constructing public rest rooms is as old as homelessness itself. There are good sides and bad sides to providing bathroom facilities. The good side is that when you gotta go, it’s right there and convenient. The bad side is that people will do things in public rest rooms they wouldn’t do in their own homes. And they do it mostly because they don’t HAVE a home. I think we could apply some of that 300+ million dollar slush fund to convert vacant businesses into apartments. AND have enough left over to build bathrooms.
Not to digress too far, but yesterday I drove to Redwood City, and took ECR because the 101 is just a parking lot these days. On the way back, I noticed how beautiful Menlo Park is, on the street level. Well paved road, manicured trees, no weeds in sight. As I approached the Palo Alto border, there was a marked difference. Weeds in the median, and trees that look like Edward Scissorhands took a crack-fueled trip through PA. I realize it was an emergency to prevent further wind storm damage but the difference between an actual tree service and city crew ability to see the “big picture” are worlds apart. Those trees will never look good unless someone with some real pruning skills has a master plan to beautify Palo Alto. Not this year, according to this list of needs. Perhaps we could change the name. “Tall Stumps”? “Orange Cone Of Shame City”? “Blinded By Dollar Signs”? I don’t think the approach to the city should be such a stark image that points to neglect. After you survive the potholes and RV’s that line the streets between Stanford and Paly, when you get to California Avenue it’s just so unsightly that if it was in anybody else’s front yard they would get cited for blight. From there, all of the avenues had constant construction going on. Alma Street is almost the only street that doesn’t have 365 days of construction and it shows. At 5 PM between the train stops and the traffic, is a nightmare for anyone who ends up on Alma at that time. Yeah I’m on a rant because I got stuck in that last week. And it was further delayed by multiple police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance. There is NO place to pull over to the right, on Alma. The good news (as if it’s good), speeders get a pass because there’s no place for a traffic officer to hide to hand out tickets. LOL. I’m sure it will get better some day but I won’t survive that long!
Cubberley, mnoted above, deserves major attention as it is a centrally located gem of a location in Palo Alto!
All Palo Altans can access and make good use of this.
NO housing or limited special interest giveaways.
I disagree with Council dreaming up new imaginative ways to spend our taxpayer dollars. Please stick to fundamentals.