News

Long Beach’s budget proposals aim at improving services

The Long Beach City Council discussed on Tuesday their budget plans for the 2015 fiscal year in which $54.1 would be used for parks, recreation and marine, library services, and code enforcement.

George Chapjian, who is the director of Parks, Recreation and Marine, proposed the budget.  He said services such as parks, recreation and marine are to provide “quality maintenance of parks, facilities, open space, beaches and marinas.” He added that a $287,000 increase to the budget funding these areas would continue to pay for these services.

Chapjian also said that $2 million from the budget would replace “the outdated irrigation system” at Heartwell Park, which would “reduce ongoing water consumption.”

According to drought.gov, most of California is currently in the worst drought level. Any type of conservation of water would help deal with the state’s drought, Chapjian said.

Glenda Williams, director of Library Services, proposed a budget of about $12.2 million for library operations.

“96 percent [of the money] goes to library operations,” Williams said.

She said that proposed investments of $2.1 million and $48,600 would go towards making Long Beach’s North library bigger and replacing old phones in libraries.

“The current phones are more than 20 years old,” William said.

She also mentioned that Long Beach’s 12 libraries are “heavily used with more than 1.2 million visits” in this current fiscal year.

“That equals about 5,000 people a day walking into our facilities,” Williams said.

Angela Reynolds, deputy director of Development Services, who proposed a budget of $6.3 million for code enforcement, said she would like to invest in “full implementation” of handheld devices, such as iPads, to help code enforcers.

On another matter, Chapjian said that animal control is one accomplishment that happened in the 2014 fiscal year due to the work that went into the service.

“Our animal care services operation has continued its successes by reaching a 25-year-low in animal impounds resulting in our highest live release rates ever,” Chapjian said.

4th district Councilman Patrick O’Donnell said he promotes the parks, recreation and marine budget.

“I should take this moment to encourage the other councilmembers…” O’Donnell said. “You should really look to put [money] in some of the park facilities because those matter.”

Many public commenters talked about a need for money to be directed to parks in order to provide more surveillance.

Claudia Schou, president of “Friends of Bixby Park,” a group that seeks to restore and revitalize Bixby Park in Long Beach, was one of the public commenters encouraging park monitors.

“Ever since the park ranger program was cut from the budget three years ago, our city’s parks [are] in desperate need of support from park rangers,” Schou said. “We have public drug dealing and… public drug use.”

Mayor Robert Garcia ended the budget discussion and said further discussion on the budget will continue on Oct. 12.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

Daily 49er newsletter

Instagram