Downey passes $118M budget with eyes towards filling job vacancies

DOWNEY — Downey’s fiscal year 2023-24 budget will put special emphasis on maintaining quality of services for residents, while still spending over 60 percent of its budget on public safety.

The Downey City Council approved its eleventh consecutive – and first for new City Manager Roger Bradley - balanced budget for fiscal year 2023-24 on Tuesday, projecting $115,000,000 in general fund expenditures. The city is also conservatively predicting $118,188,000 in general fund revenues.

The city will add several new full-time equivalent (FTE) personnel in the coming fiscal year, including an economic development director, homelessness solutions manager, associate traffic engineer, citywide systems engineer, two building inspectors, a plan checker, senior code enforcement officer, two part time code enforcement officers, a fire inspector, and a crime analyst.

Mayor Claudia M. Frometa emphasized that these additions were necessary to meet the five areas of priority that the council had determined in recent budget discussions and goal workshops, those being fiscal responsibility, efficiency and adaptability, economic vibrancy, quality of life, safety, and infrastructure, and public engagement.

“These are truly necessary because the departments that we have currently have been significantly understaffed, and we really are trying to, not just accommodate for growth in our community, but also the services and the expediency of which we are tackling the requests coming to us,” said Frometa.

Bradley made note that many of these additions are funded through grants or are “budget neutral.”

Downey Police and Fire Departments will receive a vast majority of expenditures, $43,668,000 and $27,632,000 respectively; 62 percent of the general fund allotments, and an increase of around 5 percent from last year.

The city will next spend most on community enhancement, comprising the Community Development and Public Works departments, allotting over $14.7 million.

Quality of life (Parks and Recreation, library) will receive over $11.3 million (10 percent) of the budget.

There will be an increase of $2.3 million spending in general government, $11.6 million overall. This includes the upcoming special elections, and a $296,000 increase for SEAACA services.

Assuming that these projections prove correct and accurate, it is predicted that the city will end the fiscal year with just under a $3.1 million surplus, and a total general fund reserve total of $33,748,000.