City of Upland, CA

WE WILL BE OKAY

There has been some press lately about the state of the City’s finances and this issue was a major topic of discussion for those that were attempting to be elected to the City Council.  Well, I will tell you, the citizens of Upland, that we will be okay.  Yes, our finances have taken a hit over the last few years, but so have many other organizations and individuals.  Like anyone, we just need to tighten our belt, live within our means and take measures to build our reserves.

The majority of Upland’s revenues depend on the economy.  In my thirty plus years in municipal government, I have experienced a number of economic cycles.  It is cyclical in the fact that the economy goes up 4 to 7 years and then goes down 4 to 7 years.  Good fiscal stewardship is to build up reserves, a sort of “rainy day” fund, during economic upswings in order to protect service levels during economic downswings.  By 2007, Upland had built its General Fund reserves to almost $20 million, or about 48% of General Fund expenditures at that time.  That was a very healthy level of reserves; unfortunately, Upland then went on what I will term as a “spending spree”.  On the positive side, we paid cash for a new fire station and animal shelter, and the City Council was generous in providing increased compensation and benefits to selected Upland employees.  On the negative side, the timing of these expenditures couldn’t have been worse as the economy was already starting its downswing.  The “spending spree,” combined with some costly lawsuits and the inability to quickly downsize our organization, led to our current status – depleted General Fund reserves.

In order to live within our means, Upland started taking serious measures to downsize the organization during the summer of 2011.  Unfortunately, downsizing should have happened a few years earlier and it is difficult to slow down an organization that has a lot of perpetual motion.  Upland, under the direction of the City Council, has implemented a number of measures to shore up the City’s reserves and is in the process of considering a number of other measures that will put Upland’s finances back in good order.  Most of these measures will include an evaluation of how services are delivered to the community ensuring that they are provided in the most efficient and cost effective manner possible.

The good news is that all the adjustments made to date will pay off handsomely once the area’s economy perks back up.  A more robust economy, along with a continued conservative fiscal approach, will put Upland back in good financial footing before long and, hopefully, Upland will have learned its lesson.