The city of Long Beach just completed the 2023 annual budgeting process. One of the challenges facing the city is the high inflation costs for products, materials, and labor. I am also very aware of this impact on families.

Most of the city of Long Beach’s infrastructure has been in place for many years, such as: water lines; storm drains; culverts; pump stations; hydrants; streets; water meters; sewer lines; shutoff values; vehicles; and equipment that needs replacement, major repairs or increases in capacity. Our sewer pump stations are at the age where we need to retrofit them by installing new liners, pumps, piping and electrical controls.

Another area we are looking at is technology. We service over 2,000 water meters in Long Beach and Seaview. Services, like manually reading water meters, takes four crew members one week every month to complete. Currently, we are spending about $200,000 yearly on remote-read water meters and have now installed over 50% of these meters. The utility crew complete over 200 locates annually that include research, mapping and marking the utilities before construction or digging can take place. New technology like Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Data Management will help us in so many ways, such as: reading and monitoring water meters; data collection on all facets of the city’s information; moving from paper (maps, etc.) to software programs for better access while working in the field, and secure storage of information.

Additionally, there are federal and state requirements to operate the water and sewer systems, the fire department, and even working in confined spaces. The special equipment required and annual training results in approximately 40 hours of training annually per employee. This requires travel and time away from normal city work which adds to the annual expense of the city. The granting authorities also require utility rates be raised appropriately every year; otherwise, the city will not qualify or won’t remain competitive for grants. This was the case when we built the water plant and could not obtain a grant due to our water rates not being sufficiently raised. Therefore, the city was required to take out a loan to pay for the plant. Even though grants will rarely pay for a complete project, they do offset our contributions.

We conducted budget workshops to look at each fund, evaluate our loan amortization and loan requirements and ending balances to create and approve the city’s 2023 annual budget. Certain funds pose challenges since they have restrictions on how the money be spent. However, the general fund is one of the most challenging. Like with most cities, a large portion of the general fund goes to fund law enforcement.

The following depicts a few of the departments’ expenses that have been included in the 2023 budget that are in addition to normal operations and maintenance.

Fire Department:

Paving and drainage repair of the fire station parking lot.

Streets Department:

Asphalt Overlay projects proposed:

5th Street North, 7th Street North and 9th Street North — East of Washington Avenue

4th Street North from Oregon Avenue to Washington Avenue

Ocean Beach Boulevard from Pioneer Road to 26th North

Discovery Trail signage

Water Department:

Water Line replacement and improvements from Pioneer Road to 26th North on Ocean Beach Boulevard and on “K” from 42nd to 51st.

Installation of Radio Read water meters

Closing thoughts

The city council passed the 2023 budget with a salary increase of 5% for all employees. The total salaries and benefits for 2023 equal $3,736,777.

Currently, when you look at all funds and debt levels, the city is doing very well and ensuring that all taxpayers’ money is being spent in a prudent manner while still doing what is required to keep Long Beach a great place to live now and into the future.