Politics & Government

City Council Saves $1.8 Million Surplus

The Mission Viejo City Council agreed Monday to put its $1.8 million surplus from last fiscal year into the city's reserve account.

After all the numbers were tallied last month, Mission Viejo still had $1.8 million unspent from the last fiscal year. So Monday night the City Council agreed to save most of it and put aside a small portion of the surplus for shade structures at public facilities.

The money could have been put toward a dog park, a pet project that has dog owners wagging their tails, though others are calling it too expensive.

Resident Cliff Swan of the planning commission said he's against spending $1.1 million on the dog park, and said he noticed slope slippage at the proposed location at John Lusk e-mailed the council saying the same thing.

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"It's not major slippage," Swan said, but he said it would still be expensive to repair the hillside.

Instead of a dog park or other project, most of the $1.8 million will be put aside in the city reserve account. That account is kept aside for emergencies and other uses.

Find out what's happening in Mission Viejowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In an e-mail, Councilman Frank Ury said that even though no decision was made on a dog park, there is plenty of money in the city's park fund to keep that project moving forward.

"We have over $8M in park fees coming in over the next few months," he said. "That is more than sufficient to cover all the planned recreation improvements and the dog park."

Councilwoman asked that $35,000 of the surplus be used for shade structures at Curtis Park and for the volunteers of the local Meals on Wheels program. Councilwoman asked for another $5,000 to shade the senior center.

City Manager Dennis Wilberg agreed to have city staff explore the cost of the proposed shade structures and return the issue to the council for futher approval.


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