CLEARLAKE, Calif. – With the state budget finally decided, this week the Clearlake City Council and Clearlake Redevelopment Agency will consider adopting budgets for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

Council members – sitting jointly as the council and redevelopment agency – will consider approving draft budgets that emerged from an Oct. 12 study session.

City Administrator Dale Neiman's report to the council said that general fund expenditures in the proposed city budget document have been reduced by 7.1 percent as compared to the actual expenditures from the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Projected expenditures for the 2009-10 general fund budget totaled approximately $3,995,817, compared to the proposed $3,710,916, according to city documents.

Neiman's report said the city has cut 43 percent of its full-time positions over the last three years.

He suggested that if the city can't increase its bed and sales tax revenues, the services that the city provides currently will “continue to get worse.”

The city's cash reserves also have dwindled from $216,361 to $142,722 over the last year. Neiman's report said the accepted minimum standard for cash reserves is 15 percent of operational costs. “As a result, we should have a minimum of $762,680 in cash reserves. We are short by $619,958.”

Neiman also reported that the development review fund has a deficit of $34,869, which will grow to an estimated $271,849 by year's end due to litigation that occurred in 2007 and failure to collect $90,000 in revenues for the cost plus fee structure in 2006.

Prop P, the fund derived from a half-cent sales tax to support police services, has a deficit of $53,580, expected to grow to $69,056 by June 30, 2011, Neiman reported. The gas tax fund also has a deficit of $98,102 but a transfer should change that to a positive cash balance of $70,415 by the end of the year.

In other business, the council will host a public hearing to consider an ordinance extending a temporary moratorium on marijuana dispensaries. The ordinance is up for its second reading after the council gave it an initial vote of approval on Oct. 14, as Lake County News has reported.

Also during Thursday's meeting, a presentation will be presented to Amy Osborn of Lower Lake High School declaring Oct. 23-31 Red Ribbon Week.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .