Another year, another city budget–this one made perhaps more interesting by what they’re now calling a projected $16.9 structural deficit in the 2009 Fiscal Year.

Otherwise, this afternoon’s Long Beach City Council budget workshop in Council Chambers veered from dry (four words: “Successful Refuse Nexus Study”) to, in Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal’s words, “draconian” (you be the judge of that), but we still don’t know exactly how the city will dig itself out of its financial hole.

There’s been rumblings of a parcel tax for those of us who own land, but two of the wilder possibilities the Council and city staffers kicked around included rebuilding or relocating the Main Library currently in Lincoln Park–and turning control of the Queen Mary over to the Port of Long Beach.

Um, ex-squeeze me?

That last suggestion wasn’t on the hand-out; it came from Eighth District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, after the Council and members of the public heard City Manager Pat West and Director of Financial Management Lori Ann Farrell preach financial abstinence and sober living.

The city’s ideas on belt-tightening included continuing a departmental vacancy rate of about 12 percent at City Hall (the statewide average is 7 percent, according to West); asking non-General Fund-funded departments, such as the Redevelopment Agency, to help do things like graffiti removal; eliminating redundant services (currently, six different agencies patrol our beaches); and making groups that use our police, such as Long Beach Transit and Long Beach City College, pay the full cost of their services.

As for making more money, Farrell said part of that will take care of itself, thanks to high city oil revenues. She also suggested that the municipal code could be changed so that the fines drivers pay for moving violations come to the city instead of going to the Department of Motor Vehicles; and that the city continue investigating how to collect a bed tax from online hotel bookings.

Other possibilities, said Farrell, include increasing the utility users tax, and–someday–talking about electronic billboards again.

Then there was the problem of the Main Library where when it rains, sometimes it pours on the books.

(In what we believe is a related development, the gardens atop the library–reportedly designed to make up for the loss of the original, more pastoral Lincoln Park–look as if they haven’t been watered since the George H.W. Bush administration.)

“Right now, we’re looking at perhaps $10 million in structural improvements to make that a safe library again and resolve some water issues and some mold issues,” West said. “But we’d really like to take a hard look at relocating the Main Library before we put that $10 million in there.”

(Say–maybe the city could go in with Acres of Books and split the cost of a place.)

Council members listened and, generally, asked for more detail and specifics. There wasn’t a lot of back-and-forth debate between the council and staffers–nor was there any comment from the public; this seemed to be a day for requests and big-picture ideas.

“This is a good start but this is probably something that we should have started a couple months back. My frustration is that there were only a couple times where actual dollars were discussed,” Gabelich said. “In less than 30 days we’re going to be looking at a budget in which we’re going to have to make decisions. I hope it comes with a little more clarity than it did [in past years].”

As for ways to ease the city’s burden, Gabelich said, “Maybe it’s time that we talk about giving the Queen Mary back to the Port of Long Beach, with directives to provide state -of-the-art facilities for the City of Long Beach, and let that fall on their backs and not ours.

“We don’t have the money to do any of it,” Gabelich said. “So I’d like that to  be a point of discussion.”

And so it went. The 2008 Fiscal Year ends Sept. 30.

If he hasn’t already, Mayor Bob Foster will get a proposed budget later this week from the city staff. He’ll make his suggestions and hand it over to the Council by Aug. 1. The city’s Budget Oversight Committee will weigh in at some point–and the Council will have until Sept. 15 to adopt a 2009 budget.

Tags: acres of books, California, City Manager Pat West, Director of Financial Management Lori Ann Farrell, Eighth District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, Lincoln Park, Long Beach, Main Library, Mayor Bob Foster, Queen Mary, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas