Budget a Priority at Town Hall Meetings

If you have any thoughts on how Novato should spend your hard-earned tax dollars, starting next week, you'll have a chance to give city officials an earful.

The city will hold the first of two community meetings on long-term fiscal planning on Tuesday. The second Town Hall meeting will be held on July 8. Both  meetings will be held at City Hall and start at 6:30pm.

City Manager Michael Frank will attend both meetings.

“Whether your interest is in land use, streets, police, parks and recreation, maintenance or other areas of the city, the decisions that the council is facing will have long-term implications for city services and service levels in Novato,” Frank said in a statement posted on the city's website.

“As your City Manager, I believe this is the best time to address what has long been an issue for our City — a chronic budget deficit.”

The city has drafted a Fiscal Sustainability Plan that aims to address some of Novato's recent budget woes.

Novato slashed 25 percent of its workforce as part of $6.5 million in budget cuts that started in 2007. Voters instituted a half-cent sales tax (Measure F) after the city declared a fiscal emergency in 2010.

“We're hoping that people will really get engaged in this budget discussion but so far in a lot of these budget meetings we've have the public just doesn't show up,” council member Jeanne MacLeamy said.

“We're giving them plenty of opportunities to get involved.”