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13anta Ana's General Fund Balance Dips to Just Over $300,000 - Voice of OC I Orange Co... Page 1 of 2 <br />0 0 <br />Santa Ana's General Fund Balance Dips to 3ust <br />Over $300,000 <br />ADAM ELMAHREK I Posted: Thursday, October 20,20119:22 pm <br />Friday, Oct. 21, 20111 The city of Santa Ana is essentially living paycheck to paycheck, <br />according to records released this week by the city's finance director, Francisco Gutierrez. <br />Santa Ana's general fund balance at the end of September was $3I3,343.50, according to the <br />records. This represents about one -tenth of 1 percent of its nearly $200 - million general fund <br />budget. <br />The balance has dropped precipitously since the end of July, when it stood at just under $3.4 <br />million, records show. Then it dived to $161,035.46 by the end of August, according to the <br />records. <br />These numbers are the latest in a series of revelations in recent months showing Santa Ana to be <br />teetering on the edge of insolvency. An August report by the city's budget consultants, <br />Management Partners Inc., stated that the city has spent through its $41.4 - million unrestricted <br />fund balance. <br />The city announced in September that it is facing a potential $30- million budget deficit for fiscal <br />year 2012 -13. <br />"Simply put, the city must now take substantial action to reduce its spending," the consultants <br />wrote in a cover letter to the report. <br />Interim City Manager Paul Walters is supposed to release in January his first set of <br />recommendations to close the deficit. Union leaders have indicated a willingness to reopen <br />contracts. Yet it remains to be seen whether the city will act soon enough. <br />The firefighters union hasn't proposed sufficient pay and benefits cuts, Councilman Sal Tinajero <br />said, and the city has asked the Orange County Fire Authority for a proposal to outsource the fire <br />department. <br />City officials also acknowledged that they're leveraging internal service funds set up for special <br />purposes, like payouts for legal settlements. The city transferred $5.2 million from those special <br />funds to balance its books in September and is planning a $2.8- million transfer this month. That <br />money will not be available again, according to the Management Partners report, and some of the <br />special funds are already underfunded. <br />Last week, Joaquin Avalos, president of the Santa Ana chapter of the Service Employees <br />International Union, said the city was in danger of missing payroll perhaps as early as November. <br />httP://www.voiceofoc.org/oc—central/,ulicle-9dgg)tic 160_8289- 001cc4c002e01t... 11 /3 /2011 <br />