1 McKay, Ann Marie CC
Subject: The Budget and Item #23 on the May 12th Agenda -----Original Message-----
From: Louise B. Thornton
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2026 1:12 PM
To: City Council <[email protected]>
Subject: The Budget and Item #23 on the May 12th Agenda Dear Council members:
A city government is supposed to represent all of its ciƟzens regardless of their economic status. I am sure I’m not the first person to tell you basically doubling the already high appeal fee rate puts an untenable burden on many Laguna ciƟzens.
And, the percepƟon you plan to do it again when the dust seƩles, doesn’t help. In either case, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. There are a great many very talented people in this fair City… ask them what they would do.
And, the budget issue: CiƟ Manager Dave Kiff has expressed his concerns regarding the City‘s budget. All but one of you were on the Councils which allowed and approved the acƟons which caused our present deficit.
Since you are sƟll working on making the City an efficient, effecƟve operaƟon, add making it lean and efficient budget wise as well. The percepƟon is Dave’s is keeping the status quo by cuƫng around the edges and raising rates.
Show your ciƟzens you are trying and not shiŌing the budget problem onto them.
Don’t let percepƟon lead when acƟon should.
Louise B. Thornton
1 McKay, Ann Marie CC
Subject: Budget Workshop Question
From: Jacquie Schaefgen
Sent: Saturday, May 9, 2026 6:06 PM
To: McKay, Ann Marie CC <[email protected]>
Subject: Budget Workshop Question
Hi Ms. Mckay, Could you forward this to city council please? Thanks! *************************************************************** Dear Mayor Orgill and City Council Members:
I am a former member of the Housing and Human Services Committee, and I had a few questions after reviewing the proposed 2026-2027 Budget (I hope to attend the budget workshop and have sent the questions to Mr. Kiff as well)
The proposed budget estimates starting balances as of 6/30/2026 of: $753,800 in the Housing In-Lieu Fund and $1,379,000 in the Housing Fund. The City’s financial statement shows 6/30/2025 actual year-end balances = $801,612 and $1,766,700 respectively. This balances are pretty close to what the October 2025 staff memo reported (related to the LHTF grant/reducing the amount that would need to be drawn from parking Fund) shows for those account balances. I know there was consulting work completed in the current fiscal year but I didn’t think it was $435,000 ? I was wondering what accounted for the difference.
The housing fund has increased significantly over the past two years, derived (I believe) from two sources identified in resolution 23.045: 1- short-term lodging (STL) Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT)- specifically the annual transfer of TOT for units #128 and above (the actual unit # being originally stipulated in resolution 22.042) and 2- excess property tax revenue, which in accordance with the resolution,would be transferred to the housing fund IF actual property tax rolls exceed budget projections, up to $500,000. I was excited to see that the City was awarded $2.5 million from the State's Local Housing Trust Fund (LHTF) Program last Fall — a competitive grant that requires an ongoing local revenue source as a condition of eligibility. Per page 37 of the proposed budget, there does not seem to be any short-term lodging (STL) Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenue projected to be added to the Housing Fund for the current year FY 2025-26 — though $65,000 was originally budgeted for that purpose.Is that requirement being waived for the current year ? If so, is resolution
23.045 still operative in terms of potentially allocating $ to the housing fund from excess prop tax revenue ? I’m asking because I was very excited to see that the city was awarded a $2.5 Million LHTF grant in the Fall. It’s my understanding that the LHTF grant requires that the city have an ongoing source of revenue for its LHTF (which for a practical manner, means an allocation of some amount to the housing fund each year). What a great opportunity to leverage the funds that have largely already been set aside to help finance an affordable housing project in our town…I don’t know how HCD validates the ongoing contribution, and I do recall from talking with HCD a few years ago that the $ amount allocated annually can be nominal- enough for the LHTF administrative overhead (handled by staff/some % of time presumably) but I would hate to lose this matching grant because a budget didn’t show an ongoing stream of revenue to housing (like the TOT tax) it had committed previously. 2 Thanks so much,
Jacquie Schaefgen
451 Nyes Pl
949-422-6850