Campbell is dedicating millions of dollars to improve quality of life for residents in spite of a budget shortfall.
The Campbell Planning Commission unanimously agreed Tuesday that more than $100 million in public projects aligns with the city’s goals for the next five years, including a $12 million proposal to redo the community center pool. Campbell can prioritize these projects during fiscal uncertainty because of its varied funding sources, even though the city faces a nearly $3.2 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2025-26.
The pool project, which staff say is long overdue, would largely be funded by park fees the city collects from developers. Other big ticket items, including the $27.3 million police headquarters and $13.6 million library, are funded by Measure O — a $50 million bond voters passed in 2018. Both bond projects have been underway for more than a year and should be fully built sometime between August and September.
The Campbell City Council will review the projects in June when it analyzes the deficit alongside the roughly $67.6 million budget. The shortfall is due to an anticipated loss of $650,000 in sales tax revenue, coupled with a $558,000 increase in employment costs such as retirement funds and a $455,800 hike in the city’s Santa Clara County Fire Department contract. City staff recommend implementing a temporary hiring freeze, limiting or not using temporary workers in the next fiscal year and deferring hiring and project requests to address the uncertainty. Campbell has already implemented a 1% reduction in operating costs for all departments.
City Manager Brian Loventhal said Campbell couldn’t work on as many public projects without funding through grants and state dollars. To enhance efforts, the city aims to attract businesses that generate sales tax revenue.
“Those funding sources allow us to do all those things that keep Campbell, Campbell: filling potholes, fixing streets, repairing the infrastructure,” he told San José Spotlight. “Those are all things that are critical and may get more expensive over time if you don’t maintain them.”
The new proposed projects also include about $3.6 million for annual street maintenance and $950,000 to expand VTA’s ability to speed up stoplight metering to help buses move quicker through traffic, along with the pool remodel. The pool, which was constructed in the 1950s, is the priciest proposal. Campbell conducted an audit on the pool in 2017, which found it needed to be completely revamped. It generates 1,100 visits each week during the school year and 2,200 each week during the summer, according to city data.
Resident Inga Buyse swims laps in the pool three days a week. She wants the locker rooms redone, but said she’s concerned about the effects of redoing the pool.
“I don’t want to see the price going up (to swim) because it’s fancy,” Buyse told San José Spotlight. “I don’t care about fancy, I care about the bottom line — that it’s accessible for everyone, affordable.”
Campbell has faced deficits before while managing work on community projects. Last year, the city balanced a roughly $5 million shortfall while the library and police building were under construction.
Planning Commission Chair Matt Kamkar said it would help if the city could use funds from Measure K, a half-cent sales tax 72% of voters approved last year. The measure is expected to bring in $7 million annually, but the city can’t access its funds because the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association is challenging it in court.
“The job of the city is to serve its residents,” Kamkar told San José Spotlight. “You gotta be optimistic. Hopefully that challenge is overcome.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
