Ojai Valley News Blog

Click for OVN Homepage

Revenues Drop, City Cuts Budget

with 32 comments

Merchants seek help from city in promoting Ojai as tourism mecca

By Sondra Murphy
It is no secret the local economy is not immune to the national downturn, especially in Ojai’s core industry of tourism.

On Tuesday, city manager Jere Kersnar offered preliminary figures for the first quarterly budget review to the Ojai City Council.

The report began ominously, as the city sought council recommendation to begin preparation of a budget control plan to be ready by the midyear budget review, if not sooner.

Sept. 30 marked the end of the first quarter, giving a limited view of city finances, since not all revenue sources are received and expenditure patterns are unclear. The 2009-2010 fiscal year general fund budget is $7.9 million.

Kersnar called the primary sources of revenues for the city “the big three,” which are property, sales and transient occupancy taxes. Property taxes are routinely received in the second and fourth quarters and Kersnar said early indications are that the budgetary projection will hold.

Sales tax revenues were down in the first quarter, bringing in $66,578.24 and causing Kersnar to predict those revenues will be about $250,000 short of the full year estimate.

TOT was the main concern, which yielded $447,398.24 in the first quarter. The initial analysis projects a full year shortfall of more than $550,000 from the projected $2 million. No unusual patterns in the collections of other general fund revenues were evident.

The analysis is based on comparisons to the city’s 2008-2009 first quarter, which Kersnar reported were strong and said shortfalls may well be overstated. “That is, the revenues are likely to perform better by the end of the year than the initial projections would indicate. Nonetheless, the projections are of obvious concern.”

Councilwoman Betsy Clapp was troubled by the time line. “I’m reluctant to wait until February to do something.” Kersnar said other revenues, such as property taxes, would be known in December, helping the city implement a budget control plan as soon as January.
Earlier in the meeting, several merchants addressed the council asking for them to schedule a discussion about the city doing more to help market Ojai as a tourist destination. Assumed in the requests was the ability for the city to fund such a marketing plan. Geoff Wells particularly targeted “day trippers” who stay in other communities and stop by Ojai for a few hours. He said a marketing plan to lure “quality visitors” to the city was needed.
“Promoting Ojai in a proactive manner is something that must be done, and must be done soon,” said Scott Eicher, Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO. “Tourism is our primary revenue stream and we need to keep it flowing. It’s practically stopped right now.” He suggested the city consider funding a visitors’ bureau again or invest in hiring a publicist.
Councilwoman Carol Smith viewed the competition from surrounding area hotels as challenging to overcome. “When the (Ojai Valley) Inn went into five-star range, they fell out of range of the couple in Westlake who want a three-day getaway,” said Smith. “When the inn was not so upscale, they could attract people who aren’t movie stars.”
Council members decided an informal workshop setting would facilitate a more effective dialogue between merchants and the city. Smith urged people to bring hard client and customer data to the discussion.
The Merchant Workshop is scheduled for Dec. 1 at 6 p.m. in the council chambers. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m.

Written by admin

November 17th, 2009 at 5:05 pm

Posted in news, ojai, ojai valley

Tagged with