City Gets Creative to Find Funds for Fireworks Show
At the behest of Mayor Furey, City staff will present an item to bring back a 4th of July Fireworks show. The proposed show will be set to music, will last approximately 20 minutes, and will be held in City Hall’s backyard at the Civic Center.
Mayor Furey capped his October State of the City address by unveiling the surprise that the fireworks celebration would be returning to the City.
The expected cost of the show is $75,000. This same scaled down version of the Fireworks show was discussed briefly by the Council during operating budget meetings last May. The Council, however, opted not to include the $75,000 cost for the show in the budget at that time.
As no funds exist in the current budget, the Council will also consider an item from the City Manager to use funds generally sourced to the Capital Budget. According to the staff report, the Water Enterprise Fund repays the General Fund approximately $90,000 annually which is returned to the Capital budget for repurposing. By June 2016, the Council expects to have $185,000 of these funds available. The City Manager is proposing to use $75,000 of these funds for the fireworks and another $50,000 to hire a Historic Preservation Consultant.
Where to start with this one?? Hosting fireworks behind city hall, not enough parking like Wilson Park. Why not a scale down version at the park?
Funding source is a different issue that I will have to approach a little later with all the facts in front of me.
Should be an interesting decision considering the Council voted against this last May when they adopted the budget. What changed between now and then? Are we better off financially now than we were six months ago? I thought enterprise funds, like the Water Fund, could only be used for specific expenditures pertaining to that fund. Am I wrong?
Just a minute – Time OUT! The city has little renues sources these days after both Toyota and Nissan have vacated their headquarters for another city, we still have many vacant buildings in Torrance producing no revenue and there is a proposal to burn up 75K of the peoples taxes. What in the hell are these people thinking and how can they justify such an expenditure when there are plenty of other community Fireworks and public displays that won’t cost the people of Torrance a dime of their tax money. I guess all these Council Members make so much money in private life that nothing matters to them regarding the normal routine of life that all the rest of us have to struggle with. Since when is it right to burn taxes? Can anyone give me a good answer for this? 75K is a lot of money that could be appropriated to a much better use don’t you think? Let’s hear someone elses opinion on this please?