|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Menlo Park, like many other cities, faced many unknowns when the pandemic hit, so much so that city staff prepared a budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year with a 15% staff reduction across all departments and a freeze on various citywide programs including the popular gymnastics program. Staff anticipated spending nearly every penny that came in, and budgeted for a surplus of just $1.
“We’ve really cut to the bone on this budget,” council member Ray Mueller said at the time.
Two years later, the City Council on Tuesday, April 19, weighed a draft budget that anticipates life in Menlo Park to return to full swing.
On top of funding for 62 new and ongoing public works projects, the city drafted a long list of requests to beef up staffing throughout all departments, from public works to police to library and community services. Together, they amount to requests for about 20 additional employees at a cost to the general fund of about $3.2 million.
Chief among these requests is $1.6 million for the police department for more community service officers, an emergency preparedness coordinator, restoring the traffic unit and staffing support as well as parking enforcement officers — a total of eight more employees.
In 2020, the city slashed the department’s budget by $2.46 million and removed 15 full-time employee positions.
One item on the list of requests that received a lot of community attention is the restoration of the city’s gymnastics program. The program was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic and has faced delays in reopening due to staffing challenges, the spread of the delta variant and the lack of vaccines for young children.
More recently, a staff report revealed that the employee who was supposed to lead the reactivation of the gymnastics program retired, which will extend the time it would take to reopen to five months after the council decides to restart it.
Sean Reinhart, director of library and community service, anticipates his department will need $694,540 to fund 5.75 full-time employees to reopen the program. A majority of council members signaled support for bringing back the gymnastics program as soon as possible.
“We need to start living life normally again and bringing back enrichment programs for our city, so I support it,” Mueller said.
Mayor Betsy Nash and council member Cecilia Taylor both said that while they support the gymnastics program, they did not want to tap resources for recruiting gymnastics employees at a time when the city is still marred by staff vacancies.
“Given that we have a 24% vacancy rate in our community development department … I believe we need to focus all possible resources on those vacancies,” Nash said.
Taylor added that she wants to prioritize other areas first, such as adding more housing support staff to the Community Development Department.
“I’m interested in restoring the gymnastics program (but) I’m concerned about our headcount increasing in departments when we have such a large number of vacancies in other departments that I believe need to be resourced as well.”
The city anticipates revenue of $62.5 million for the 2022-23 fiscal year and $64.5 million in budgeted expenses, amounting to a $1.9 million deficit.
The City Council will hold a public hearing on the budget on June 14 and is set to adopt a budget on June 28.
To view the draft budget, go to beta.menlopark.org.
Most Popular
Letters to the Editor: Asking for respectful discourse during Measure P campaignOctober 16, 2026 9:48 pm
TV show on Silicon Valley's ‘outsized egos’ to film in Woodside this weekOctober 12, 2026 11:17 am
Why would the City want to spend 6 months trying to hire gymnastics staff in order to reopen in the fall when they could contract out the program to a reputable organization that already is ready to staff the program? Why would the City burden itself with the added staff and related benefits/pension expenses when suitable alternatives have been proposed that could have reopened the community gymnastics program months ago?! To have the facility remain empty at a time when all other local recreational programs and gymnastics programs have been reopened for over a year in the area is unconscionable and a terrible misuse of city facilities.
Kudos to Council Member Ray Mueller for supporting our city and community, “We need to start living life normally again and bringing back enrichment programs for our city, so I support it”
In contrast, Council Member’s Betsy Nash’s comments come across as myopic and self-serving, “Given that we have a 24% vacancy rate in our community development department … I believe we need to focus all possible resources on those vacancies.”
I am concerned that Nash’s interests don’t align with those of her constituency and that she is singularly focused on the Community Development department at the expense of all else. Also, she mentions a 24% vacancy rate but I don’t see such openings listed on the MP job site: https://beta.menlopark.org/Jobs?
There are currently 3 Menlo Park Gymnastic staff that were reassigned to assist other departments during the Covid shutdown. They are ready to restart and reopen the community’s beloved Gymnastics program they miss so dearly. There is no need to hire a private company to overtake the City’s gym and turn it in to a private club like the pool. When my son was at the Menlo Children’s Center Summer Camp, they used to take the kids swimming as part of camp and once the private company started running it, the City’s own Summer camps had to pay for the campers to go swimming for the City’s own pool. Not a fan of private companies running City programs.
Here is a thought, how about we don’t start going into deficit spending. Keep within the revenues or better yet keep under the revenue so we can set some money aside for when we need it. You, the City Council, do not need to spend our, the residents of Menlo Park, money so freely. I understand there is already a lawsuit over what people believe to be illegal taxation. If the city loses that suit it would be nice to have money available to make repayments. I don’t think the residents will be happy having to step up and cover that loss.
Treat the city budget like you would treat a personal budget: Stay within your means and set some aside for a rainy day.
“I don’t think the residents will be happy having to step up and cover that loss.”
Especially since they’d essentially be paying themselves if taxes are raised to pay back the illegally collected funds. We’re already paying the legal fees for the councils’ misfeasance. Not to mention they just extended an illegal tax, so when they lose the lawsuit they will have to cough up even more money than they already do. Brilliant move council!
Thanks, Lloyd for raising awareness about the lack of urgency for re-opening the gymnastics center. I encourage anyone who has children who have been patiently waiting to resume gymnastics programs for TWO YEARS — and those whose children enjoyed the program in the past — to attend Wednesday’s Parks & Rec Commission meeting to voice your support for putting together a plan NOW for re-opening (whether or not it’s staffed by the city or a third party can be determined as part of that planning process). https://beta.menlopark.org/Citywide-calendar/Public-meetings/Parks-and-Recreation-Commission-meetings/20220427-Parks-and-Recreation-Commission