I hope everyone in Citrus Heights had a warm, joyous, and most importantly healthy holiday season. This time of year brings with it much reflection, and I am grateful for all the ways our City has stayed true to our solid roots during a very tough time. In 2020, community leaders rallied together to support families in need, neighbors found creative ways to stay connected and look after each other, businesses partnered with us to provide meals to seniors, and residents have followed Public Health Orders to keep those at-risk safe from COVID-19.

As we head into the new calendar year and close the book on 2020, your City leaders, staff, and officials are focused on planning for the future. Aligned with our City’s core values of government transparency and fiscal prudence, I would like to provide an update to help frame what is ahead for us here in Citrus Heights.

As always, your City leaders and staff take our direction from our residents. During the recent election, our community voted not to pass Measure M, which was proposed as a local revenue source to support City services. We have known since our City incorporated that there would come a time when our expenses would be higher than our revenue, and we are in the midst of that time right now. While we knew that budget cross-over period was coming, it has been compounded by added fallout from years of increased online shopping trends, a declining mall and retail economy, and a global pandemic. This decline in City revenue is met with a mounting need to repair our City’s inherited aging infrastructure and streets.

With all this in mind, we are up against the toughest budget projections our City has ever seen. As is our tradition in Citrus Heights, the City already runs on a very lean budget and we remain dedicated to fiscal prudence. Now, without viable options for increasing City revenue, we are tasked with making difficult decisions to decrease services next year and for the foreseeable future. Thanks to feedback from thousands of residents through the City’s extensive survey efforts, we know the services our community prioritizes most. As we head into strategic planning and budgeting, we will look to balance and align with those priorities as much as possible.

Our hope for this New Year is that we stay more connected than ever with our residents, building on the strength and resilience Citrus Heights has shown this year while tackling upcoming decisions for our future. There are a number of ways you can connect with your City to stay involved: follow our social media pages, watch Council and Commission meetings, subscribe to newsletters, sign up for FlashVote, and more. Visit CitrusHeights.net/StayConnected for our list of ways to connect.  

On behalf of all City staff and officials, I wish everyone in Citrus Heights a safe and healthy New Year.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Boyd
City Manager