MALIBU—The Malibu City Council adopted the Proposed Budget, Annual Work Plan and resolutions for the appropriations limit, authorized positions, salaries, and new job descriptions for Fiscal Year 2022-2023 on June 13.
“I am proud of the City’s long record of excellent financial management and balanced budgets, which enable us to do the work of protecting Malibu’s rural community character, quality of life and beautiful environment that we all cherish,” said Mayor Paul Grisanti. “We are also funding the Council’s top priorities of public safety, Woolsey Fire rebuild and school separation while continuing to provide the ongoing services and programs that our community needs.”
The city reported on its website, that the Adopted Budget totals $89.9 million in revenue and $89.8 million in expenses and includes General Fund annual revenue of $46.2 million and General Fund annual expenditures for ongoing city operations of $44.2 million. Malibu presents a balanced budget each fiscal year. For Fiscal Year 2022-23, the proposed budget achieves the balance while investing and aligning the city’s resources with the City Council’s priorities as established in the annual Work Plan.
The Adopted Budget and Work Plan for 2022-23 continues to include a focus on the City Council’s priorities of public safety, the Woolsey Fire recovery and the school district separation effort. Reflected throughout is the city’s mission to maintain its rural residential character by establishing programs and policies that avoid suburbanization and commercialization of its natural and cultural resources. The proposed budget addresses three main aspects of critical alignment to achieve Malibu’s mission through the city’s organization: staffing; technology; and the protection of natural and cultural resources.
As part of the Adopted Budget, organizational changes to the City’s Environmental Sustainability and Planning Departments are being proposed over a three-year period to improve customer service, efficiency and transparency, improve staff morale and retention, reduce caseloads, and address resident and applicant concerns. The restructuring would, among other things, create special projects and planning teams, upgrade a position to Development Services Manager to address resident and applicant concerns, add two additional fulltime planners and two part-time interns, use new technology to improve processes and transparency, and use data-driven metrics to drive decisions.
The Adopted Budget is projected to end the fiscal year on June 30, 2023, with a $42.1 million reserve or 98 percent of the annual operating budget, exceeding the city’s minimum 50 percent reserve level which will protect against future contingencies.
Video of the Proposed Budget presentation during the June 13 Council meeting is available to view at https://youtu.be/_I3f7E-t5Vo?t=14792 (the segment starts at 4:06:32). The complete Proposed Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Budget, past years’ Budgets and other Budget documents are available on the website: www.MalibuCity.org/Budget.
