Back in 2020, I wrote a letter “Need more detail on Budget cuts.” The subject was raised again in a letter on options other than raising taxes or cutting jobs, and another on transparency in July 2025.
This year the City of Morgan Hill says it is asking our residents for their suggestions on cuts if we do not provide them more tax revenue.
Sadly, the choices offered in the tool are too limited, with only one or two buckets of significant or drastic cuts similar to past budget city-selected “decision packages.”
Please write the city’s budget office staff (Dat.Nguyen @morganhill.ca.gov and Mo************@***********ca.gov) to ask for version two with more fine-grained choices and free-form inputs.
Here are a few global suggestions:
• Add allocated budget and percent of General Fund for each department.
• Separate department costs into mandatory and discretionary.
• Add another choice (besides NoChange, Cut#1 and Cut#2). Allow both M and D expenses to be increased/decreased (changes deficit).
• Provide a comment box to identify individual activities to be preserved, increased or decreased.
The city says they are not looking at other funds, yet there are transfers out of the General Fund to other funds (for example, pavement management in the Capital Improvement Program).
The city manager continues to maintain that “We cannot reduce costs unless we are reducing positions.” But the city makes no attempt to modify existing practices.
Perhaps do more jobs with less time for each? Are there enough small changes (such as emptying city trashcans one rather than two times per week) to provide significant dollars for the most important activities?
And what about ideas like the Police Department adding a swing shift for high-activity evenings rather than adding officers to staff four patrol areas rather than the current three? Is public safety more than just police and fire?
You can get more ideas on who does what from each Department Activity Goals in the Recommended Budget FY 2024-26 and from the City Manager Strategic Priorities Workplan (presented at each six-month Goals Workshop; the next one is Feb. 6-7). I still want a Strategic Plan for Older Adult Services.
Doug Muirhead
Morgan Hill
