Lauded as an event 40 years in the making, city and school officials from Torrance shared the stage to discuss the state of their respective agencies and outline potential areas of collaboration in an attempt to cut costs.
"This is a first step in a long process, but I think we owe it to the citizens to be innovative," said Don Lee, a member of the Torrance Unified Board of Education and a former city councilman. "There's a lot of possibilities, and I'm excited about the possibility of providing a better product to our citizens."
As far as anyone could remember, it was the first time in four decades that members of the Torrance City Council and Torrance Unified Board of Education gathered to hold a joint meeting.
Like many cities and school districts across the state, the two governing bodies have been reeling with funding losses and are looking for ways to trim operating expenses.
At the public meeting, which was held Monday evening at the Torrance Cultural Arts center, officials spoke about possible areas where the two organizations could work together and share expenses, including running co-elections and sharing the use of city-owned and district-owned facilities. Among them are the city's cultural arts center and a potential gymnasium at the new Hull Middle School. The school is under construction and expected to open in 2011.
The two agencies already share some services. The city provides crossing guards to district schools and a school resource officer for each high school. High school swim teams use the Benstead Plunge Swimming Pool for practices and the city has donated video cameras for use in the district's board room. Maintenance services are also shared, including field mowing and tree trimmining.
In an attempt to downplay worries among service employee groups of layoffs, council and board members stated numerously that jobs were not at stake, despite talk of potentially combining services.
"We are in charge of educating the children and the city is in charge of providing essential services," said board member Mark Steffen. "The goal is to save dollars, and not at the expense of employees."
Nearly $27 million in state funding has been cut from Torrance Unified's budget the past two years.
"The school district is in more dire straits than the city," board president Al Muratsuchi said. "We're looking at every dollar we can get to keep the cuts outside the classroom and away from the kids."
The potential savings that could be had by holding joint elections came up several times throughout the evening. Typically, council elections are held in March while board of education elections are held in November.
The Nov. 3 election cost the district $280,000. Councilman Patrick Furey called the sum " agross waste of money."
"It's hideous that we'd go on this way and have a separate election system," he added.
The district hasn't been alone in their financial difficulties. Sales tax revenue in the city is down 20 percent.
Mayor Frank Scotto called that number a "serious hit."
As the meeting came to and end, board member Terry Ragins commented on a lack of dialog she said was once perceived in the community between members of the council and board of education.
"When I came on the board six years ago, there was friction," Ragins said. "It wasn't just perceived, it was there."
But throughout the evening, officials commended each other for reaching out and vowed to continue talks.
"This discussion tonight it the beginning of a discussion that will last a couple of years," Scotto said.
Now, the next step: City staff members will develop an "action list" within 90 days of six to 10 potential areas of collaboration.
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