Laserfiche WebLink
that rate, the reserve would be depleted in approximately two (2) months if we had a <br />catastrophic event. Additionally, like most California cities, Santa Ana relies on these fund <br />balance reserves to maintain a positive cash position during the course of the fiscal year, <br />especially during the first five to six months of each fiscal year, since the majority of the City's <br />revenues are not received until December/ January and April/May. As we accrue cost savings <br />or revenue surpluses into the future, I will continue to recommend that these reserves be <br />increased; we owe it to the community and to our employees. <br />Maximizing Opportunities <br />Given our fiscal challenges, a top priority has been to maximize economic development <br />opportunities. With the advent of Proposition 64, the City took a lead role among municipalities <br />to regulate cannabis uses within our City; culminating in being one of the first of only a handful <br />of cities that had adult -use retail cannabis dispensaries operating on January 1, 2018 in <br />California. This has been followed by the adoption of regulatory ordinances for cannabis <br />testing uses, and more recently, commercial cannabis uses. Since these commercial uses may <br />require more substantial tenant improvements, and thus more prolonged entitlement processes, <br />we are only budgeting a third of the lower range of projected revenues for FYI 8-19. <br />There also has been considerable development interest in housing and mixed use projects, and <br />staff has been working very diligently to accommodate all of this interest in our City. <br />Currently, there are 108 total residential and non-residential projects in entitlement plan check <br />or under construction. Of these projects, we anticipate 6,180 residential units and 1,396,390 <br />square feet of non-residential development, With this increased investment comes additional <br />housing and retail amenities for our community, and more property tax revenue to support our <br />City services. <br />Moving Forward <br />As previously mentioned, our current predicament was several years in the making, and <br />consequently, our transition back to fiscal sustainability will also occur over a couple of years. <br />The path forward will likely involve a concerted effort to reduce costs and also increase <br />revenues. As we look at reducing costs, it's important to note that Santa Ana is already <br />recognized as being one of the most efficient at providing services when compared to the 1 I <br />largest cities in California, and the largest 100 cities in the country. The organization has <br />become lean over time. As an example, in FY 1986-87, the ratio of employees to population <br />served was 7.5 employees per 1,000 residents; currently, our ratio is 3.46 per 1,000 residents. <br />The pressure to limit costs will be tremendous, given the needs of the Ca1PERS system to <br />remain solvent, the need to continue resolving compliance issues within some of our enterprise <br />finds, the need to address deferred maintenance for our infrastructure, in addition to any <br />requests from our bargaining units at the negotiation table. Therefore, this next year is being <br />proposed as a "bridge" year, an opportunity to frame the policy discussions around which core <br />services we can afford to deliver and at what service levels, along with vetting all revenue <br />measures for consideration. <br />Within the realities of our budget outlook, strategic investments are being made that will yield <br />positive results moving forward. Of particular note are the following projects; completion of <br />