Rancho Palos Verdes adopts balanced budget while seeking roughly $150 million for landslide recovery

Rancho Palos Verdes adopted its fiscal year budget at the June 16 city council meeting and will rely on a mix of savings and outside grants to cover recent landslide expenses, Mayor Paulo said on RPV City Talk.

"We have a healthy and balanced budget," Paulo said, adding the city took a lean approach because of money spent on the landslide response. He credited the finance team, naming "Reena or Vina Duramos and her team," for their role in the budget process and said staff held roughly four to six budget meetings to craft the plan.

Why it matters: The city is still operating under a landslide state of emergency, and mitigation and repair costs have strained local resources. Paulo said the city is looking for "about 150 million in federal and state grants" to backfill expenditures and pursue longer-term stabilization work.

The mayor provided specific operational updates: he said the Portuguese Bend area is "moving just about slightly over an inch a week" and that a portion near Abalone Cove "is doing about 1.6." Those figures represent a decrease from earlier movement rates, Paulo said, and the city is continuing pumping and other mitigation work. He said the city aims to reduce movement "under an inch" to allow utilities such as gas and electricity to be restored to affected areas.

The transcript did not include council vote tallies or line-item budget details on where landslide costs were charged. Mayor Paulo said the city is pursuing multiple grant and revenue options and emphasized ongoing contingency planning related to storm season and El NiF1o concerns.

Next steps: The mayor said staff will continue mitigation pumping, pursue grant funding and monitor movement rates; no timetable for specific restorations beyond targeting movement under one inch was provided.