By Brittany Hanson/Garden Grove Journal
A schedule has been set to select a new city council member, a deputy was honored, a position was extended and predictions have been made about the financial future of the city of Stanton at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
The council subcommittee, consisting of Mayor Carol Warren and councilmember Al Ethans, will select three applicants from the pool of six submitted applications to be reviewed by the full council at a pre-council meeting on March 13.
The council will interview the final applicants and announce their selection on March 27.
Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Baltodano was honored at the beginning of the meeting by a representative of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Baltodano is responsible for the apprehension of 33 impaired drivers in 2011.
City Manager Carol Jacobs’ contract with Stanton was extended for 90 days in order for the city council to decide whether a renewal was what was wanted.
“There’s this word, transparency, that’s floating around,” said council member Brian Donahue, “I think we would be doing ourselves and the city a great disservice if we just went ahead and approved this without really looking into it.”
Also, the mid-year review of the financial state of the city was seen to have improved, but is still in a deficit.
The gap between revenues in the city and expenditures was at $2.7 million and is now at $ 2.4 million, which is still a deficit.
Although the city operational costs are below what’s budgeted, the gap is projected to continue to grow each year until 2016.
“In 2016 the gap will be 3.4 million, with a 4 percent increase in costs [for fire and police services],” said Terri Marsh, director of administrative services.
