Palm Springs, facing $76M deficit, grapples with budget cuts

As the city of Palm Springs adjourns its third special meeting confronting a projected budget shortfall of $76 million through next June, city council inched closer to making decisions but there were still no cuts determined Tuesday night.

"We are just beginning with the economic challenges before us," said Councilmember Lisa Middleton.

City leaders are considering cutting nearly $14 million in personnel costs, affecting city services.

"Paramedics, fire, police, library, animal services, those are all value decisions to provide that higher level of service," said city manager David Ready.

Palm Springs police and fire chiefs addressed the council on what the proposed cuts to their departments would mean.

"It's going to actually touch all aspects of our police department: non-sworn, support staff, sworn officers, line level and sworn supervision," said police chief Bryan Reyes.

"The vacancies is a much, much better option than either closing a fire station or reducing our rapid response medic unit," said fire chief Kevin Nalder. "That means 2-3 firefighters will need to fill those vacancies on a daily basis and as you know firefighting is a very dangerous occupation."

In an effort to avoid as many layoffs as possible, proposed cuts in non-personnel services total more than $8 million dollars.

That includes:

• $530,000 from homeless services
• $500,000 from tourism
• $475,000 from the Palm Springs International Film Festival
• $300,000 from the Palm Springs Animal Shelter

The city faces an estimated 80 percent downturn in tourism next month – and city council fears there could be no end in sight.

"I don't see in the next few months conventions coming back to town, I don't see flights coming back to town, Splash House definitely is not coming back to town – it's supposed to be in June," said Councilmember Dennis Woods. "Even if we open up the economy, I don't think we're going to rebound from the losses that we've had."

The council continued their discussion until another special budget meeting Friday at 1 p.m.

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