California’s Biggest Spender

June 17, 2003

Dear Editor,

Thank you for your excellent investigative journalism. In your two-part series, you reported that the City of Santa Monica spends more per person to deliver basic services than other cities spend to deliver the same services. (“Great Expectations or Spending Spree?” June 16 and “Tale of Two Cities: How Santa Monica and Pasadena Spend Their Money,” June 17)

Yes, Santa Monica may be California’s biggest spender. According to a comparison of 1991 budgets published by the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers, “City Budgets on the Web,” Santa Monica spends more per person by a large margin. In fact, when it comes to per person spending, Santa Monica even eclipses Santa Barbara and Beverly Hills.

Your story challenged the conventional wisdom that the massive budget is because “Santa Monica has a big heart and spends all that money to help the less fortunate.” Big heartedness is not the problem.

Santa Monica does not spend One Hundred Million Dollars more per year on social services than Pasadena. Where does all that money go? The Lookout exposed the big story -- Santa Monica spends much more for virtually everything it does from fire, police, legal, administration, to planning services.

Meanwhile, we witness wasteful and counterproductive projects, such as the hazardous new 26th Street traffic circle, and other unnecessary traffic projects, along with an unnecessary $75 million dollar library, while our schools lay off teachers.

Take the Planning Services budget, as one example. Santa Monica’s Planning Department spends more than DOUBLE per capita what Pasadena spends on planning services even though Pasadena has a larger area, 23 square miles versus Santa Monica’s 8.3 square miles, and Pasadena has a larger population of 138,800 versus Santa Monica’s 84,084.

Are Santa Monica’s planning services twice as efficient and twice as helpful as Pasadena’s planning services? Or as many critics contend, is all our expensive extra staff working against us? This question requires rational review. How long does it take to process a permit for a new house in each city, or to install a new window, and similar services? Is the Santa Monica City Hall more user friendly than the Pasadena City Hall?

Are we getting more and better services? If so, then perhaps the extra millions of dollars are justified. On the other hand, if our services are no better or possibly worse than Pasadena’s services, then why are we spending millions more every year to get less? This same rigorous analysis must be applied to every department.

Paul DeSantis