By Jorge Casuso

June 30, 2025 -- The City Council on Tuesday narrowly approved an austere biennial budget that homes in on public safety improvements largely funded with a tax hike approved by local voters in November.

Despite general agreement over the $793.3 million budget for FY 2025-26 and $829.7 million for FY 2026-27, an ongoing $49,000 allocation to neighborhood groups divided the Council, leading to a 4 to 3 vote.

Council members who opposed continuing to give $7,000 a year to each of the city's seven neighborhood groups said some of the groups used the money to make political endorsements.

The adopted budget adds a police sergeant and a community services officer, beefs up security at three City facilities and adds an emergency paramedic unit.

The budget, which kicks in on July 1, also includes funding to launch a Fire Department ambulance operator program, maintain and repair broken street lights and make streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians.

The new initiatives come as the cash-strapped city has implemented a hiring freeze, stopped restoring programs cut during the coronavirus shutdown and continues dipping into its "historically low reserves" to stay in the black.

The budget enhancements are being largely funded with a tax hike on private parking lots approved by local voters last November to enhance public safety and create safe routes to school, and by reallocating existing budgets.

“This budget reflects careful planning and tough but necessary choices,” Finance Director Oscar Santiago said in a statement after the Council's unanimous vote.

“We’ve taken a responsible and strategic approach to close funding gaps, maintain core services and invest in areas that best serve our residents,” Santiago said.

The fiscal belt-tightening comes as the City struggles to reverse a "lingering economic Downturn," while facing "unprecedented legal liabilities" ("Council Prepares to Approve Budget as City Faces Dire Economic Straits," June 24, 2025).

Given the budget constraints, a plan to add five sworn police officers was replaced with one that proposed adding four community services officers (CSO), who are not sworn law enforcement personnel.

At the urging of Police Chief Ramon Batista, the Council instead added one Police Sergeant to "provide additional on scene leadership" and one CSO for a total annual cost of $490,000 ("Final Budget Proposal Boosts Police Funding," June 20, 2025).

Neighborhood leaders Tricia Crane and John Smith urged the Council to add the five officers originally proposed and to continue the funding to neighborhood groups.

The risk of losing the neighborhood funding prompted Police Chief Ramon Batista to offer some of the $73,000 allocated for officer training.

““I am fully supportive of supporting the neighborhoods to make sure that they can communicate and stay connected," Batista told the Council. "They help us amplify the safety message. We're totally supportive.”

Counclmembers Dan Hall, Jesse Zwick and Caroline Torosis opposed funding the groups, some of whom can make political endorsements but cannot use City funds for political activities.

"I think it's incredibly inappropriate to be using taxpayer dollars to subsidize organizations that make political contributions and political endorsements,” Hall said.

Mayor Lana Negrete and Councilmembers Ellis Raskin, Barry Snell and Natalya Zernitskaya voted for the budget, with a requirement that neighborhood groups provide receipts for their expenses.

“These are groups of people who educate people,” Negrete said.

The approved budget also included $630,000 in funding for a pilot mobile Advanced Provider Unit (APU) that gives critical care services to "homeless and vulnerable populations."

Staffed by a Firefighter Paramedic and a Nurse Practitioner, the APU will "enhance treatment, care, and resource accessibility for the city’s most at-risk individuals," according to staff.

In addition, the budget earmarks $150,000 for an ambulance operator program that includes three full-time temporary employees.

The budget also allocates $100,0000 to make security upgrades at the Main Library, Miles Playhouse and Camera Obscura in an effort to address crime and loitering, and $51,750 to purchase additional equipment for the Police Department's drone program.

The budget preserves $1.5 million in funding for "special deployments overtime" in the Police Department's $132.5 million budget that includes salaries for 399 full-time employees.

In addition to funding Police and Fire Department programs and staffing, the Council boosted funding to make streets safer to navigate.

The budget earmarks $750,000 for streetlight maintenance and repairs, including money to add one full-time employee, and another $460,000 to hire a "Traffic Painter/Signs and Markings Technician" and a "customer service" employee.

In addition, the Council approved $200,000 "to create an automated bike lane enforcement program using cameras mounted on parking enforcement vehicles."

"A successful pilot program utilizing only two parking enforcement vehicles was conducted in 2024 that found 1,679 violations over 6 weeks," according to staff.

City officials believe there is reason to be optimistic despite "a downturn in international tourism, regional challenges, and greater economic uncertainty" that are impacting sales and hotel taxes and parking fees.

They point to more than $1 billion in hotel investments, 7,721 units of new housing that is "pending, approved or under construction" and a new Pier Bridge project that will start construction at the end of the year.

“This budget balances realism with optimism,” Negrete said in a statement Friday. “It recognizes the financial challenges we face while making smart, focused decisions that keep Santa Monica moving forward.

"We’ve prioritized essential services, invested in long-term needs and taken steps to strengthen our city’s foundation for today and the future,” Negrete said.