The City of La Cañada Flintridge and its elected leaders are committed to maintaining our local quality of life, and supporting the core services and infrastructure that our residents, businesses and visitors rely on every day. The City is currently facing a number of challenges, including rising costs and the potential for budget deficits in coming years.

With a 60% approval rate, the Measure LCF, the La Cañada Flintridge Essential Services Measure, will allow the City the uphold priorities such as public safety and infrastructure maintenance.

Public Safety

La Cañada Flintridge contracts with the Los Angeles  County Sheriff’s Department and utilizes LA County Fire for public safety services. The City is committed to maintaining 911 emergency medical response times, and police patrols in neighborhoods and business areas to help prevent crimes and burglaries and keep residents and their property safe.

Recent trends impacting cities across LA County are placing some strain on our local public safety providers. Last year saw a 5-year-high combination of thefts and residential burglaries in our city, with more than 310.

La Cañada Flintridge is also close to the foothills of the Angeles National Forest, which poses a number of public safety challenges for the community. Recent years have seen increases in wildfires, such as the Station Fire. Rains have also resulted in mud flows and storm run-off. Maintaining City infrastructure to safeguard against these weather events, and working with residents to prepare for wildfires and natural disasters, is an important part of the city’s efforts to protect the community.

Streets, Roads and Infrastructure

The City’s Public Works Department oversees the maintenance of local infrastructure as well as maintaining parks and keeping public areas safe and clean. The department has a number of recent accomplishments, including resurfacing of Descanso Drive, the Olberz Park Gazebo as well as completed and ongoing sections of Soundwalls.

However, the City has roughly $60 million in unfunded road maintenance and other capital improvement needs. For perspective, the annual General Fund of the City is $19 million (see below).

Prior to this year’s rainy season, independent engineers rated 56% of La Cañada Flintridge’s streets and roads as “fair” or “poor”. Current resources allow for the full re-paving of local streets and roads every 36 years.

The City of La Cañada Flintridge also has one community center that services hundreds of seniors, children, youth and other residents, but it is 60 years old and in need of repairs.

What is Our City’s Budget?

The City’s budget for the current fiscal year is $53.9 million. Nearly 65% of this is in dedicated funds, however, and so the budgeted “General Fund” is $19 million. This General Fund is primary funder of many of the basic services of the city, including much of the Public Safety, Parks and Recreation, Public Works and other departments.

The  single largest investment made by the General Fund is the roughly $5.3 million, or about 28% of the entire General Fund budget, devoted to Public Safety. Public Works accounts for another 12%, Community Development 18%.

From a revenue perspective, unlike many cities La Cañada Flintridge has no Transient Occupancy (Hotel) Tax or Utility Users Tax. It also has no dedicated voter-approved local sales tax beyond the standard local “Bradley Burns” sales tax. The current sales tax rate in the City is tied for the lowest in LA County.

And for three recent county sales tax increases, 15 cents on the dollar are being returned to La Cañada Flintridge.

What has the City Done to Manage its Budget?

Every City Department was estimated to come in under budget last year, with the exception of the Lanterman Auditorium, which has seen significant usage since the end of COVID 19 closures. As a whole, the City has been able to control and reduce costs by;

  • Expanding services without adding additional staff
  • Seeking grant opportunities for capital replacement and projects
  • Deferring maintenance and other capital improvements
  • Automating processes and expanding on-line options for many city processes

What is an Example of a Revenue measure to Maintain Service Levels?

As mentioned above, La Cañada Flintridge is one of the few cities in LA County that does not receive locally controlled funding from a voter-approved sales tax measure, beyond the standard local “Bradley Burns” sales tax. More than 50 cities in LA County charge a higher rate, including neighboring communities such as Sierra Madre and South Pasadena. If approved, a three-quarters cent increase in the local sales tax rate could provide approximately $2.75 million in new annual revenue for general governmental services, such as infrastructure.