Santa Paula council adopts two-year budget, flags shortfalls in later years

The Santa Paula City Council on June 30 adopted a two-year budget for fiscal years 2025–26 and 2026–27 and approved an amendment to the city's position-control list, the council said, while staff warned of projected deficits in later years.

Council members voted to adopt the budget and separately adopted Resolution 7,578 to add a senior administrative analyst classification and an administrative analyst series job description to the position-control list.

The budget presentation laid out changes staff made since the last workshops, additions to the adopted document and outstanding corrections. Finance Director Lorena Ramirez told the council the adopted document includes a transmittal letter, a fiscal forecast and a budget adoption resolution; it also preserves the existing salary schedule while attaching an appendix (Appendix C) that shows the salary rates used in budget calculations pending conclusion of labor negotiations. "We don't want to put the cart before the horse," Ramirez said about publishing anticipated labor rates before negotiations are finished.

The city manager and department directors described a…