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Budget workshop puts five council priorities into focus as public presses PWP to fund solar and storage
Summary
At a budget workshop April 6, Pasadena staff and the council refined five top priorities and discussed funding options. Public speakers urged the council to reprioritize the CIP to fund municipal solar and the Broadway battery-storage project rather than a new $33 million PWP headquarters.
City staff returned to council April 6 with next steps from the December budget priorities workshop, outlining five refined priorities for the coming budget cycle and seeking direction on reporting cadence and funding choices.
CIO Philip Clair and Assistant City Manager Matt Hawksworth presented the priorities the council discussed: modernizing fire facilities and prevention; improving roads, pedestrian and bicycle safety; investing in year‑round shelter and transitional housing; accelerating Pasadena’s transition to 100% carbon‑free electricity by 2030; and carrying out an economic‑development strategy with tools such as an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD). Staff proposed a quarterly public dashboard, deeper midyear dives, and department KPIs tied to these goals.
The funding conversation that followed focused on local revenue sources — a quarter‑cent city sales‑tax (estimated at about $11 million annually), parcel taxes, transfer taxes (with a warning about a pending state ballot initiative that could end local transfer taxes), community benefit/assessment districts, and the county’s proposed half‑cent sales‑tax measure that could generate roughly $22 million in Pasadena if passed.
Public comment — largely clustered around Pasadena Water & Power (PWP)’s Capital Improvement Plan — pressed the council to align the CIP with Resolution 9977 (100% carbon‑free electricity by 2030). Multiple speakers criticized what they called a mismatch between the council’s stated climate goals and the draft CIP’s spending priorities, pointing to an unfunded Broadway battery storage project and municipal solar projects pushed to the bottom of the list while the CIP includes $33 million for a new PWP headquarters and major natural‑gas turbine work.
“Budget is a moral document,” said Pasadena student Audrey Ma, who told the council municipal storage and solar are central to meeting the city’s climate commitments and are “not optional line items.” Other commenters asked the council to send staff back to revise the CIP so solar and storage are funded earlier and to consider bonds or rate adjustments only after demonstrating that operating priorities align with council goals.
Council members asked staff to convert the five priorities into specific, measurable goals and to present corresponding KPIs before the operating‑budget cycle so the council can judge tradeoffs. Staff told council members PWP was preparing a clarifying document listing direct expenditures in the CIP that support Resolution 9977 and aimed to publish that document with the CIP agenda packet ahead of the April public hearings.
What’s next: the CIP public hearing process opens in mid‑April; staff said it will return a PWP clarification document by the agenda publication for the CIP hearing and recommended more public KPI reporting and scheduled midyear deep dives to evaluate progress against council priorities.
