To cover the costs of the COVID-19 shutdown, the Twentynine Palms City Council met last night to discuss how best to move the money around. Reporter Heather Clisby was there…
In hopes of presenting a balanced budget come June, Twentynine Palms City Manager Frank Luckino offered some creative solutions last night to the council to cover COVID-19-related shortfalls.
Regarding personnel, the city has laid off part-time staff while offering voluntary furloughs and early retirements. The council will further discuss freezing some scheduled raises and retirement payouts.
The city and the Morongo Unified School District still disagree on equal cost sharing for the school resource officer. MUSD currently covers 19 percent of the $187,000 cost, while the city covers the remainder, and that cost is growing to $216,000 in July. Possible solutions included the removal of the MUSD school resource officer and a deeper discussion between the school district, Captain Luke Niles, Mayor Joel Klink, and Council member McArthur Wright.
With the travel industry shrunk by at least 30 percent, the city will miss both the transient occupancy taxes (TOT) and sales taxes usually generated by tourism—a $557,000 loss this fiscal year. The city sent a letter to hoteliers offering to defer their first-quarter payment of TOT for 90 days with an incentive to pay it now. At this writing, three hotels and 14 short-term rentals have paid.
With the heat of summer looming, reduced hours for the city’s pool were also discussed. The council took a wait-and-see approach, knowing how much kids depend on the facility. They will re-visit the issue in the weeks leading up to Memorial Day, traditionally the busiest weekend.
The city decided not to fund two part-time staff members at the visitor center, saving $28,000 as two staffers—funded by TBID—will remain.
