The Santa Clarita City Council approved a $219 million budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021.

During their regularly scheduled meeting, the Santa Clarita City Council approved the 2020-2021 fiscal year budget of $219.7 million.

City staff provided the Council and public a breakdown of the fiscal year budget, which included $109.9 million in expenditures.

Within the allotted $109.9 million in expenditures, the largest portion is allocated to “public safety / Sheriff’s,”  with $27,475,000 allocated to this area, according to Ken Striplin, Santa Clarita City Manager.

However, several public speakers asked for the 25 percent allocated to the Sheriff’s payment to be reconsidered.

“Divest the police and invest in the community,” said Christina Carlson, a speaker during the public comments regarding the budget. “$2.5 million would help keep Santa Clarita’s homeless shelter running for 24/7 for an entire year. Crime response is reactive not proactive… Simply put we are asking for a general review of how much we give to (the sheriff’s department.)”

In response, Striplin assured the public speakers that the amount that Santa Clarita spends on the Sheriff’s Department was much lower compared to other cities in Los Angeles County.

“Comparable cities, smaller in population… the amount of money spent on those police departments is far greater than the City spends… we roughly spend $28 million, they spend 65 to 95 million,” Striplin said of Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank.

Striplin also addressed how the Sheriff’s Department sells their contract as a singular item.

“The Sheriff’s Department is contracted- so we pay for an item, those services are broken down into traffic, patrol deputies, COBRA, there’s a number of different teams,” Striplin said. “So you don’t see the line items in the budget, no training. We pay this much and the Sheriff provides within that budget.”

Councilmember Weste added that Santa Clarita spends as much on it’s parks and trails that it does on the Sheriff’s Department contract.

The second largest portion of the nearly $110 million in expenditures stands at $16,485,000, which is allocated to public works.

The budget was approved unanimously by all the five members of the City Council.

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