Roughly a dozen speakers addressed the Fullerton City Council at the July 14 budget study session, arriving in the wake of two community workshops and an online exercise that drew about 81 participants citywide. The message from both channels was broadly consistent: protect public safety and streets, cut special events first, and stop treating cuts as a substitute for a revenue strategy.

What the budget workshops found

The city conducted workshops at Fullerton Main Library on July 7 and Hunt Library on July 9, with around 34 community members participating in person. An online version of the workshop received 47 responses. Staff member Daisy clarified that the feedback is one of many sources to inform ongoing budget discussions, not a formal survey.

Street maintenance emerged as the top priority, with 57 participants advocating for its strengthening, while only 7 wished to maintain it and a few suggested reducing it. Other areas of concern included homeless shelter beds and construction permit processing times, each getting 28 responses for strengthening.

Participants generally showed a preference for maintaining core services rather than expanding them. For instance, firefighters received a consensus of 42 to maintain, with only 14 wanting an increase. Similar trends were noted for street lighting and graffiti removal.

In police-related feedback, opinions were mixed; while 18 wanted an increase in officers, 31 preferred to reduce police community relations. Special events, particularly the Fourth of July festival and First Night celebrations, faced significant calls for reduction, garnering 38 responses each against calls to strengthen them.

On revenue options, hotel occupancy tax adjustments were most favored, with 47 participants open to exploring them. Support was also seen for a dedicated sales tax for streets and legalized cannabis, though several options, such as revising downtown parking and public-private partnerships, prompted requests for more information.

Opposition was strong against privatizing city utilities, with 44 opposing the water utility privatization. Budget scenario B, which allows for a balanced budget through service reductions, was preferred by 29 respondents, while the most drastic cuts in scenario C were notably polarizing.

Written feedback from participants echoed the themes of protecting core services, ensuring fiscal accountability, and seeking alternative funding sources before imposing new costs on residents. Many praised the workshop format, requesting further details on the implications of each budget scenario.

After a two-hour presentation on the budget, the public shared their opinions.

Public Comments

Chris Norby, the former county supervisor and assemblyman, made the case for contracting. Yorba Linda’s annual police cost is $240 per resident against Fullerton’s $473, he said, because it contracts with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. “There’s only one way to find out, and that’s ask for a bid.” He made a parallel argument on fire — Placentia at $104 per resident against Fullerton’s $268, which he attributed to Fullerton running paramedic services in-house. He also urged selling 21.3 acres of vacant city land along West Bastanchury, North Euclid and the west end of Rolling Hills, which he valued at $60 million to $80 million, and studying the highest and best use of the 86-acre Fullerton Airport property, which he suggested could be worth $400 million to $500 million depending on entitlements, remediation and federal obligations.

Jose Castaneda called holding executive vacancies “a master class on municipal finance,” but urged a “disciplined blended hybrid of scenarios A and B” with no personnel reductions in Community and Economic Development, Fire or Police — specifically arguing the Deputy Chief/Fire Marshal role must be kept in-house. He asked the Council to cap upcoming service fee increases at 2%, study a charter city pathway, initiate a regional study on municipal service consolidation, and apply for an OCTA Enhanced Mobility grant due August 28.

Another speaker apologized for having misunderstood the workshop exercise — she had assumed participants were to place one green, one yellow and one red dot across the three scenarios, and wondered whether others did the same. Given what she has since read, she said, “I probably would have put a red on all of them.” She opposed privatizing the libraries, water department, airport, police or fire, opposed selling city property, backed hiring the expertise Grant Thornton recommended, urged an immediate economic development plan, and supported a designated roads-only sales tax with a sunset clause. “Fullerton must have a heart,” she said. “Our budget reflects our values.“

Another speaker, thanking staff for the community meetings, pointed to the $10 million that had been discovered missing months earlier and said accountability must be the Council’s first priority, followed by “actual, genuine transparency.” On the proposed reductions: “We must continue to support the employees that we have in the city.“

Pastor Jennifer Garcia of First Lutheran named the mood in the room: “There’s a lot of grief, grief that’s coming out in sadness, grief that’s coming out in anger.” Budgets, she said, “aren’t just objective documents, they are moral documents.“

Jody Agius Vallejo, a resident of District 2, and I am. Professor at USC. And the fact that we’re even talking about these cuts, that this is Fullerton’s fiscal reality, is on this block right here. At the beginning of this year, I warned about Fullerton’s fiscal deficit at a City Council meeting during public comments, and my council member, Dunlap, dismissed those concerns by blaming decisions made before he took office.

That is not leadership. You do not get to blame. A deficit, as we have had on people coming before you, is not how you actually serve. A city, you do not campaign to lead this city and then, when things go wrong on your watch, point to those before. That is a bait-and-switch tactic that people in this community are not falling for. Mayor Jung, just a few years ago, you stood at your State of the City address.

You showed a slide showing increased city revenues every single year. Either that was a lie or that demonstrates that you do not understand how budgets work, how a complex city budget like what we have here in Fullerton. The three of you hold this majority. You set the priorities. You approved the spending. You made the decisions that brought us here. And now you’re asking the community to accept cuts, significant cuts, to public safety, public works, to our fire department, to our Police Department, to our city staff who work every single day on our behalf, the services that make Fullerton a great place to live.

This budget crisis belongs to the governing majority, not to our firefighters. It does not belong to our police officers. It does not belong to our librarians. It does not belong to our public works employees, our city staff, or the many residents who depend on the services that we provide with our own taxpayers’ money. You work for us, and when you ignore residents, dismiss concerns, shut down meaningful public participation, don’t act surprised when people lose confidence in you, when people lose confidence in your leadership.

Mayor Jung sent that message on your supervisor’s race pretty clearly. The growing frustration that we hear tonight, that we hear people talking about constantly, people emailing so many of us in the city because none of you respond to them. Sends that message again. We want a city that works for us. We want transparency. We want accountability. Fullerton deserves leaders who take responsibility, not leaders who make excuses.

Not leaders who rely on privatization of our water. Anything else that is our city’s resources, public lands, the sweetheart deals that you consistently make, the elimination of our public services. These are not the answer. This is our city. This is the city we love. We want you to step up for us. For our community. And for the people you serve.

Jim Ertel, a lifelong resident, pushed back on the special events line items — roughly half a million dollars for First Night and the Fourth of July, by his reading — as things “we do not need to do” in this climate. He was blunt about the survey: fewer than 100 responses in a city of 150,000 is “terrible” for gauging opinion, he said, while acknowledging staff had disclosed it was not statistically representative. He opposed contracting with the Sheriff’s Department, arguing deputies rotated in from South County “don’t even know the city,” and suggested Cal State Fullerton interns could help in some areas.

Karen Lloreda of District 2 thanked staff for the department-by-department breakdown and asked for clarification on the $11 million Successor Agency line and on what “General Fund portion only” means. On the scenarios: “Option A calls for the use of reserves. In my opinion, that’s not an option we can afford. Drop it.” Noting that Administration and Fire are identical across all three, she argued the real choices lie in Police, CED, Parks and Rec, Library and Public Works.

“Just like any household, cities need to have a breadwinner,” she said. “Anaheim has Disneyland. Dana Point has luxury hotels… Fullerton, we don’t have a stable, reliable source of income.” She urged protecting economic development and permitting throughput, avoiding short-term park cuts that cost more later, and putting a roads-only tax measure with an absolute sunset date on the ballot.

A 41-year resident who came to Fullerton from Taipei told the Council she had taken her three daughters to the library weekly, that all three moved back to Fullerton, and that her grandchildren now go. She described the 2019 fire, when police knocked on her door while she was caring for her wheelchair-bound mother and unaware of what was happening outside, and an incident at her school when officers arrived within five minutes of a 911 call. “We need fiscal responsibility,” she said, “but we also have to thank all those people who provide us amazing services.“

Elijah Manassero argued Fullerton’s problem “has not been and never has been spending. It has been revenue,” and that the city has no plan to go get any. He called for an economic development plan, cutting City Council health benefits —“otherwise it just looks like austerity for thee and not for me” — halting the automatic infrastructure fund transfer that was premised on Measure S passing, allowing cannabis retail, and addressing land use, noting Cal State Fullerton enrolls over 40,000 students with about 2,000 beds on campus.

Z.J. revived a proposal he said he has brought for three years — an auto mall, modeled on Cerritos — and recounted the city’s history of turning down Disneyland and the mall that went to Brea.

Curtis Campbell, an advocate for homeless residents, veterans, students, bus drivers and seniors, said he was unsurprised by the shortfall given the Council’s dynamics: “If you have that much chaos from a team, you would never win.” He urged the Council to share responsibility and to work with OCTA on roads, arguing the agency has its own stake since poor pavement damages million-dollar buses. Mayor Fred Jung interjected to correct the record on the prior year’s budget, saying it passed 4-1 with Mayor Pro Tem Nick Dunlap voting no.

Saskia Kennedy noted Cerritos and Anaheim are charter cities with deficits of their own. She warned against returning to pandemic-era staffing, “when so many people had three job titles,” and residents couldn’t find anyone accountable. Fireworks and holiday events, she said, are what a household cuts first. But “we 100% need a CFO,” she added, and someone whose job is finding revenue. These investments need to happen so you know what your real finances are and where they are coming from.

Two remote speakers closed public comments. 

Dominic Moonhart, a former District 3 resident, opposed contracting police or fire out to OCFA, Cal Fire or CHP, pointing to Riverside County’s response times. 

Sharon Kennedy rebutted Norby directly, noting that Placentia’s lower fire costs omit the vendor cost of contracted emergency services, and that Fullerton’s in-house paramedic program “is a great idea and it should stay.“ She added, “Absolutely no privatizing of our water.“