Colfax City Council members on Monday discussed options for closing an approximately $200,000 gap in the city’s 2009-2010 fiscal budget.
They also extended a medical marijuana dispensary moratorium and agreed to fund sewer engineering services for improvements to the city’s lift stations.

Layoffs, cut in hours among budget ideas
Most of Monday’s meeting was spent discussing possible options for closing the city’s 2009-10 budget gap.
Among the topics to be researched by staff and considered for action at the Aug. 11 council meeting are: eliminating two staff positions and combining them into a different position in a newly organized community services division; eliminating one public works employee; increasing employee contribution for benefits by switching to CalPERS; reducing public access to City Hall to 24 hours a week and limiting the staff workweek to four days — offices would be open to the public three days per week, leaving staff with one uninterrupted workday; staggering public works employee hours to eliminate overtime and creating two public works shifts to cover all seven days of the week; and freezing merit increases.
The council vowed not to consider furloughs unless the above cuts proved insufficient.
Previous recommendations had included 20 percent pay cuts and two furloughs a month.
During a public hearing, several city employees said that, while pay reductions would affect their retirement as well as salary, they would rather accept cuts or furloughs than allow jobs to be lost.
Council members stressed that additional research would be required before any final decisions were made.
“This is not something that’s just going to be turned on a dime and (result in) having people laid off by tomorrow,” Councilman Josh Alpine said.
Colfax’s budget shortfall has increased rapidly in the past five weeks, as the state has proposed taking gas tax and other revenues while the city faces lost sales and property tax revenue due to increasing unemployment and declining real estate values.

Medical marijuana moratorium extended
Council members began Monday’s special meeting by unanimously approving an extended moratorium that would prevent a second medical marijuana dispensary from opening in Colfax. The new moratorium is for 10 months and 15 days with subsequent potential for another year-long extension and replaces a temporary 45-day ban that would have expired July 23.
The city received an application for a second dispensary in March. Although a license for a similar business was approved in 2004, the council desired additional time to review potential traffic, parking and public safety impacts, as well as the possibility of creating a concentration of medical marijuana dispensaries. Grass Valley and Nevada City have already adopted similar urgency ordinances.

Sewer work funding questioned
After much debate, council members agreed to fund a $349,000 proposal by Eco-Logic to provide engineering services for sewer collection improvements – on the condition that contractors would cease work if grant money could not be secured.
Contract services were initially approved for $262,000, with the remaining balance to be awarded once a grant is received.
The city is working towards compliance with a state cease and desist order that requires reducing its sewer infiltration and inflow and upgrading lift stations. In order to be eligible for the state stimulus funds sought by staff, the project must be engineered prior to Sept. 1.
In addition to design, permits and bids, Eco-Logic services will include surveying to prepare a new base map due to inaccuracies found in previous studies.
Council members were at first reluctant to approve funding for a new map because the city already paid for surveying work by Fletcher Plumbing, which resulted in this year’s controversial sewer rate increase.
“I’m caught in between,” said Councilman Steve Harvey. “I don’t want to end up with what we did with Fletcher. But if we don’t do this properly, it’s going to come back and bite us again.”
Eco-Logic engineers attested that a more accurate map would lead to more accurate bids – and savings in the long run by ensuring the project is a permanent success.
If inaccuracies ever arise, Eco-Logic will fix them, said senior engineer Dave Price.
“If we are going to oversee the service work and you determine at some point in the future that something is not right, we’ll come back and make it right,” Price said.