Westminster City Council members decided against putting the renewal of a local tax measure on the November ballot after a nearly seven-hour meeting with ample community support for it. However, council members have agreed to reconsider the measure once more before the deadline to place items on the November ballot passes.
In 2016, Westminster residents voted to instill a 1% sales tax measure to supplement the city’s income and protect its public programs. Dubbed Measure SS, the tax has brought in $81.5 million over its six-year run, ultimately keeping city services alive, according to staff reports. But it is set to expire at the end of this year.
Without it, the city faces bankruptcy by November 2024, Erin Backs, the city’s finance director, warned.
“This vote today is going to sink this city,” said Vice Mayor Carlos Manzo, who supported putting the measure on the ballot.
Councilmember Tai Do, who abstained from voting, has previously argued that the council should resolve its infighting and better manage its money rather than give Westminster another “blank check.” Do said he could not support “taxation without representation” and maintained he’d spoken to myriad constituents in opposition to the tax measure’s renewal.
“Depending on this tax is just like depending on your rich parents,” Do said. “If your parents give you a check every month, do you have to go to work? No, just put your hands out, and that’s it.”
But Westminster’s Citizen Oversight Committee, which recently met with the City Council and has pushed for the renewal, argued the tax has kept Westminster out of bankruptcy.
“We have heard from the dais that we should live within our means. We cannot live with our means. We are stuck with 1978 values … and that’s what you’re asking us to live on [without] Measure SS,” said Diana Carey, the group’s chairwoman and a former City Council member.
In 1978, California voters overwhelmingly approved Prop. 13, which severely limited local property taxes and locked Westminster into lower-than-average property tax returns.
Combined with the cessation of state-issued redevelopment funding in 2012, these deficits left the city drastically underfunded — with no choice but to slash public services and execute large-scale layoffs.
Measure SS has since been the city’s lifeline, Backs said. She asserted the renewal of the tax measure is a necessity, not a luxury.
“It just keeps the lights on. It keeps us moving forward,” Backs said.
To make up for an anticipated loss of $17 million — one-quarter of its operating budget — Westminster would be forced to eliminate more than 30 senior management positions, cut its police force by 33%, and disband all commissions not required by law, according to city staff.
“We’re already running thin,” City Manager Christine Cordon said. “Even with the sales tax measure in 2016, we’ve still struggled to build that workforce in order to provide these services.”
Assistant City Manager Adolfo Ozaeta said Westminster has still not filled all positions impacted by layoffs that took place 10 years ago. Additionally, police Chief Darin Lenyi reported that while 105 sworn police officers served a population of 88,000 in 2005, only 90 officers serve Westminster’s current population of well over 90,000 — in spite of the fact that violent crime is increasing.
“This is a wide-open rabbit hole that only you five can stop,” resident John Gentile said during the council meeting, which began 7 p.m. Wednesday and didn’t adjourn until 2 a.m. Thursday.
Yet, the council once again reached a stalemate. Only Manzo and Councilwoman Kimberly Ho voted in favor of putting the measure in the hands of the public this fall, whereas Do, Mayor Tri Ta, and Councilman Chi Charlie Nguyen abstained — falling short of the four members needed to place the renewal on the ballot.
The council will meet again Friday, Aug. 12 at 11 a.m. to reconsider the decision. The registrar’s deadline for additions to the November ballot is Friday at 5 p.m.
