From Irvine City Council Members Beth Krom and Larry Agran: If anyone needed proof that citizen participation matters, they should have been at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. After five hours and dozens of speakers, the unexpected happened. On a 3-2 vote, Councilwoman Christina Shea joined us in restoring funding for The Irvine Barclay Theatre, The Legal Aid Society, The Orange County Human Relations Commission and The Discovery Science Center. The primary matter before the City Council was the 2013-14 City Budget. The good news is that Irvine is in great shape financially. After leveraging our “rainy day reserves” over the past four years to maintain our high City standards throughout the recession, we have now adopted a balanced budget without the use of reserves and have rebuilt our reserve fund to over $20 million. Even better news is that we anticipate a large operational surplus from the current fiscal year — about $11 million in “carryover funds” — due to better than expected revenues and conservative budgeting. So we were shocked when the proposed budget recommended defunding The Irvine Barclay Theatre, The Legal Aid Society, The Orange County Human Relations Commission and the Discovery Science Center. The misguided rhetoric and philosophic platitudes offered by Mayor Steven Choi and Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Lalloway as they argued against supporting these outstanding institutions that serve all Irvine residents made it clear that pressure was put on the City Manager to target the arts, science, and social support when preparing the budget. The Irvine Barclay Theater is owned by the City of Irvine, and as former Irvine Mayor Sally Ann Sheridan rightly pointed out in her remarks to the Council, it is a big part of the “cultural soul” of our community. The Legal Aid Society has helped thousands of Irvine residents with everything from tax preparation to fighting foreclosure. The Orange County Human Relations Commission, on whose board our Chief of Police sits, is an active partner in preserving the peace and harmony of our community. And the grant we provide to the Discovery Science Center offsets the cost of educational field trips for Irvine students. These organizations are an important part of the fabric of our community. If no one had shown up to fight for them, their funding would have been cut from the budget. Thanks to the advocacy of everyone who came out to speak at the City Council meeting, Irvine’s wonderful institutional partners will continue to have a positive impact on our City in the coming year — and, we hope, for many years to come. irvinematters/public-safety/
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:17:46 +0000
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