South El Monte delays vote on fiscal-year budget after residents, staff debate proposed cuts to public safety and code enforcement

South El Monte's City Council voted 4-1 on Thursday to continue consideration of the fiscal-year budget to its July 1 meeting after a night of public comment and a detailed staff presentation showing multi-year deficits and proposed cost-cutting measures.

The council meeting drew more than a dozen public speakers, many urging the city to spare current employees from layoffs. “We need to really look at the other side of the ledger — the trips and the gifts we give out and wasteful spending that takes place before we start firing any employees,” resident John Ventura told the council. Denise Silva, another resident, urged the council to consider cutting discretionary events such as the night markets before cutting jobs: “I'd rather save somebody's job and put food on the table for those families,” she said.

The nut graf: City staff presented a revised budget book that incorporates five major cost-cutting options the council directed at prior study sessions — reductions to conference travel, an RFP for IT services, a medical-insurance opt-out program, a proposal to outsource part of the Public Safety Officer (PSO) function, and leaving one vacant code-enforcement post unfilled. Finance Director Masami Higa told the council that, after adding those measures, the General Fund would…