Spending smarter

larryforojai.com/world/spending

Government is neither a business nor a charity. Its purpose is not to make a profit, but to serve people responsibly: meeting real needs, helping those who need it most, and making thoughtful choices about limited resources. Every dollar represents someone’s hard-earned money, and we owe it to our residents to make every dollar count.

I don’t support spending on projects that can’t provide metrics of effectiveness, or a city that can’t follow procurement requirements. I don’t support overspending and locking us into commitments that force tax increases or skimming the reserves below 100%. In fact we should increase our reserves.

Our financial commitments seem to be growing faster than our expected income, even if taxes go up. If we keep spending like this, the only other way to pay the bills will be building more hotels, since they generate the most tax revenue. But more hotels just mean more traffic and more congestion. We shouldn’t be spending ourselves into a corner where our only choices are higher taxes or more traffic.

This is not about not spending, cutting spending, or trying to end tourism. It’s about fiscal discipline: using every tool at our disposal to spend effectively and thoughtfully, while keeping a constant eye on the consequences of our decisions. Having to raise taxes, or take from the reserves unless there is a legitimate emergency, must be the last resort.

$8.1M
hotel tax, 44% of General Fund revenue
$4.4M
property tax, 23%
$2.7M
sales tax, 14%
116%
projected reserve, against a 100% policy minimum

General Fund revenue of about $18.7 million in the city’s proposed 2026-27 budget. Final adopted numbers may differ.

The numbers

The City of Ojai spends roughly $36 million a year across all funds. The General Fund, which pays for day-to-day operations, is about half of that: $18.6 million in operating spending proposed for 2026-27, with a 3.5% cost-of-living raise for most city staff and about 23% of the fund going to public safety.

The city’s operating budget is close to balanced, and reserves are above the 100% minimum. But so much revenue depends on tourism that a slowdown would hit us quickly, and one-time costs of roughly $1 million for fire safety plus smaller items are drawing down the fund balance this year.

Where we can save or repurpose

These are the areas I want to examine first. Each one starts with the same question: what do residents get for this money, and is there a less expensive way to deliver it?

Payroll and staffing

Review the annual cost-of-living adjustment against what residents and local employers are seeing.
Look at whether vacant positions need to be filled as they were, or can be reorganized.
Cut overtime and consultant use where in-house work is less expensive, more effective and more flexible.
Review long-term pension and retiree health obligations, including extra payments toward unfunded liabilities.

Contracts and outside services

Re-bid or renegotiate major contracts (legal, planning, engineering, IT, maintenance) on a regular schedule.
Share services with Ventura County, neighboring cities or the school district where it lowers costs and works better for us and for our partners.
Review the scope and price of public safety contracts. Public safety is about 23% of the General Fund, so it deserves a careful look, but without an alternative this is a difficult place to find real savings.
Establish a Contract Committee to review every contract before it is signed, to ensure we are getting what we are paying for at a price that is in line.
Review every Request for Proposals to ensure the qualifications are broad enough to attract more vendors, with Ojai resident preference as the first qualification.

Capital projects and one-time spending

Phase lower-priority projects in the five-year Capital Improvement Program, and put health, safety and grant-funded work first.
Require an identified funding source before the Council approves un-budgeted purchases.
Weigh studies and surveys against their cost and whether they lead to action.

Energy, buildings and operations

Cut utility bills with efficient lighting and HVAC, and with solar on city buildings where the payback is real.
Fund upgrades with grants and utility rebates first.
Maintain buildings on a schedule to avoid costly emergency repairs.
Move permits, forms and payments online to save staff time.

Grants and cost recovery

Pursue state and federal grants more aggressively, especially for wildfire mitigation, transit and climate projects.
Set permit, recreation and event fees to recover the real cost of those services where the law allows.
Build a stronger cushion against a tourism downturn by increasing the reserve, so we aren’t forced into sudden cuts later.
Establish a Grant Committee to review grants before we apply, to ensure the consequences of taking the money will not become a burden beyond the grant.

Transparency and oversight

Review departments each year from the ground up through the Finance and Budget Committee.
Publish a simple budget-versus-actual report so residents, staff and the City Council can track the budget daily.
Take a fresh look at the 100% reserve policy.

Tradeoffs

Cutting or reallocating spending is not free. Every dollar saved has a trade-off, and residents should hear about it before a vote, not after. That is the true definition of opportunity cost.

What I want to protect

Fire safety and emergency readiness.
Basic services: streets, water and storm drainage, parks, and public safety response.
Reserves large enough to ride out a drop in tourism.

What will take honest debate

Staff pay: lower raises save money but can make it harder to hire and keep good employees.
Reserve size: a lower amount frees up money, but the reserve is also what protects a city that depends so heavily on hotel tax.
Delayed projects: postponing maintenance saves money now but usually costs more later.
New taxes on residents.
New taxes and fees on non-residents.
New commitments.

Tell me where you think the city should spend less, or differently, and where it shouldn’t. Send it to Larry.

Check it yourself

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