CHULA VISTA – City Finance Director Maria Kachadoorian is defending her department against what she describes as “misrepresentations” in a taxpayer group's report that contends Chula Vista is on the verge of going broke.
TaxpayersAdvocate.org President Scott Barnett released “Chula Vista – The Looming Fiscal Crisis” Oct. 25, two weeks before the Tuesday's election in which Mayor Steve Padilla will face challenger Cheryl Cox in a runoff. The candidates have sparred over budget issues.
On Friday, Kachadoorian distributed a memo to the City Council in which she rebutted Barnett's statement that the city's budget is out of whack.
“We presented a balanced budget – period,” she said.
Barnett's report criticizes the City Council for overspending during a robust economic period while racking up millions of dollars in debt. The city spent $21 million more than it took in during the past four years by using up greater-than-projected revenues and then raiding the reserve fund, Barnett said.
Kachadoorian's memo draws a distinction between deficit spending and making a conscious decision to tap reserves.
“The City Council has made a choice to spend these funds to re-invest in the community,” Kachadoorian said in an interview. “Deficit budgeting to me would be if we were presenting to the council a budget where revenues and expenditures were truly not in balance.”
Barnett said Kachadoorian is “playing word games.”
“It's the same line San Diego took for a decade as they did the same things,” he said. “The bottom line is this: For years they spent more money than they had coming in.”
Cox, who is giving up her seat on the Chula Vista Elementary School District board to run for mayor, has made the budget a central issue in her campaign to unseat Padilla. Barnett's report supports her contention that the city is living beyond its means.
Barnett is a past president of the conservative Lincoln Club of San Diego County. The Lincoln Club has spent $50,872 supporting Cox in the mayoral race, according to the most recent campaign finance disclosure forms.
Padilla said that Barnett's report is a “thinly disguised” political tool to help Cox.
“This is an extreme right-wing propaganda group trying to mislead the citizens of Chula Vista for political purposes, just like the campaign they're supporting,” Padilla said.
Cox said she “didn't have anything to do with” Barnett's study. She said she wasn't contacted by the Lincoln Club or TaxpayersAdvocate.org.
“I don't even remember how I heard about it,” Cox said.
Cox said she first saw the report last week on the group's Web site.
“When I read the report, I was thinking: How did they get their information?” she said. “It turns out it was the same way I got mine – from the city's own budget documents.”
In addition to working with the Lincoln Club, Barnett served as president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association before founding TaxpayersAdvocate.org early this year.
Barnett said he released the study before the election not to help any particular candidate, but because he believes the city budget is an important election issue.
“If I released it at another time the politicians would ignore it,” he said. “It makes no difference to me who is elected. But whoever is elected must have a plan to turn Chula Vista around before it goes the way of San Diego.”
In her memo, Kachadoorian argued that the city tapped into the reserves by choice, not out of necessity. She described some expenditures that were made outside the normal budget process:
Replacing state revenue take-aways of $5.3 million.
Renovating two fire stations, buying equipment and adding 21 firefighters: $3.8 million.
Opening a new computer-aided dispatch center for the Fire Department: $1.8 million.
Buying property for development of Harborside Park: $2.3 million.
Unanticipated litigation: $856,000.
Workers' compensation: $1.2 million.
Costs related to franchise negotiations with San Diego Gas & Electric: $1.4 million.
A study regarding the city's plan to develop a university campus: $1 million.
The TaxpayersAdvocate.org report also criticized the city for taking on $143 million in additional debt for projects including the new public works yard, police facility and the expansion of the Civic Center.
Kachadoorian, who has been finance director since March 2003, said the city is well-equipped to handle its debt load with an 8.8 percent reserve. The city also has separate reserve accounts for development impact fees, which are partially funding the debt.
Tanya Mannes: (619) 498-6639; tanya.mannes@uniontrib.com
