Looking over the shoulder of our city government
The City is spending $8M to $12M a year fixing things. Available project funding for next year: $4.7M. A pandemic-era cushion that papered over the gap is gone and the unfunded backlog has now grown to somewhere between $148 million and $280 million, with the Pier replacement now added to the list.
A $3.2 million structural deficit has been sitting under Hermosa Beach's budget for five years, masked by pandemic relief, vacancy savings, and unspent carryforward. With all three now exhausted, the council inherits a problem its predecessors chose to defer.
Council meeting opened by recognizing two pillars of the community — a gold-medal winning hockey coach and a century-old civic club — before working through a heavy agenda that included a contested fee study, Little League field improvements and police vehicle contracting.
City budget squeeze laid bare as council prepares to consider a series of difficult options to balance the books.
The first comprehensive update to Hermosa Beach's master fee schedule since 2016 would shift increased costs from taxpayers to applicants, with large hikes landing on developers, businesses and dispute filers.
Hermosa Beach has quietly commissioned a voter survey on city funding and services — a move that typically signals a ballot tax measure is in the works.
Nike's nighttime half marathon targeting 12,000 female runners gets the green light for October 24, answering challenges that stalled it last month
Inside Hermosa Beach's Capital Improvement Program, where the fault lines between what we might want for city infrastructure and what we can afford are really starting to show
Two residents have forced Hermosa Beach to restart its pickleball fee process, filing open-meetings complaints that the city council voted on fee increases buried inside an unrelated agenda item.
Council Mulls Structural Budget Deficit as Costs Outpace Revenue
Could a public-private partnership on fruit and vegetables be the answer to the city's budget crisis ?
A split vote approves daily play from 9 to 7, with fees going up and a 90-day review built in
By Hermosa, for Hermosa. Join The Review today.
