Orange County’s cities grew modestly last year.
Gains were seen on several fronts—population, general fund revenues and city employees—according to this week’s Business Journal list.
The list ranks the 34 cities in the county by population as of January, using information from the California Department of Finance.
Rankings did not change from last year—all of OC’s cities saw increases in population last year, with most eking out gains of less than 1%.
OC has eight cities with population totals above the 100,000 mark, and they make up about 56% of the county’s total, which stood at approximately 2.96 million as of January.
The combined general fund revenues for OC cities in the last fiscal year—which ran through June—totaled $2.02 billion, up about 3% from a year earlier.
The list also includes the latest tally on employment for the cities. The Business Journal is including part-time employees this year, an adjustment in methodology that indicates an increase in employment of 7% from a year earlier.
The Business Journal’s research indicates, however, that the gain in jobs comes to about 2% based on comparable data a year earlier.
Either measurement reverses a string of job cuts in recent years, including a drop of about 13% between 2011 and 2012.
OC’s cities combined for 13,916 employees as of July. The total includes full-time and part-time workers, and is based on numbers provided by the cities either directly to the Business Journal or that it obtained from municipal budget reports.
Anaheim
• Anaheim remained the largest city in OC, a spot it acquired two years ago when its population surpassed Santa Ana’s.
Anaheim had 346,161 residents as of January, up by about 2,000 from a year earlier. The city has 2,907 employees. That’s a drop from a total of 2,927 last year. Anaheim had an increase of about 5% in its general fund revenue for the fiscal year that ended in mid-2013.
• Santa Ana followed closely, with a population of 329,915. It also gained nearly 2,000 residents over the past year. The city had 1,505 employees as of July, compared with 1,203 last year, which did not include part-time employees. The city disbanded its fire department in 2012, a move that led to cutbacks of about 600 jobs.
• No. 3 Irvine again was the fastest-growing city, with an increase of more than 7,200 residents last year, for a total of 231,117. The growth followed a year-earlier increase of 5,300 residents. The city has 985 employees, including about 740 full-timers. The employee total is flat year-over-year when accounting for the number of part-time jobs at the same time last year.
“The population growth, I think, is due to a number of factors,” City Manager Sean Joyce said, referring to a robust scene of property development and Irvine’s place as “an anchor” for technology and banking businesses.
The city had a 3% increase in general fund revenues in its latest completed fiscal year, with a total of $139.2 million. The increase is partly driven by a recovery in the overall national and local economies, and is also thanks to population growths, Joyce said.
“But [also], when we look at our hotel packs … we’re seeing a really vibrant business-to-business economy, evidenced elsewhere but also in our hotel stays,” he added.
• Garden Grove stood at No. 5, while keeping its population about the same at 173,075. The city saw a decline of nearly 30 jobs over the past year, to 841, accounting for both full-time and part-time workers.
“We’ve been constant with the number of part-time jobs in the past four or five years, but we’ve reduced full-time [staff] by about 75 in 2008,” said John Clark, human resources director for the city.
That hasn’t come back yet, he said.
Garden Grove’s general fund revenue grew by 6.5% to $78.8 million, “attributed mostly to improvements in sales tax, transient occupancy tax and a little bit in property tax,” according to Clark.
Buena Park
• No. 12 Buena Park also saw gains in its general fund revenue for the 2012-2013 fiscal year, up about 3% to $55.8 million.
Aaron France, assistant to the city manager, attributed the gains in part to taxes from automobile sales, which he called “our biggest [revenue] generator.”
The city’s employment figures have remained steady when also accounting for part-time jobs, at 416.
Hiring prospects for the coming year depend on the number of retirees, according to France.
“I think we probably will have hired more in this calendar year than in the past few based solely on the amount of recent retirements,” he added.
• Retirement also had an impact on the city payroll recently for Fountain Valley, which had 210 employees as of July.
The city provided “another round of early retirement incentives” for its workers, according to a city spokesperson. An estimated 14 people took the offer.
Fountain Valley’s general fund revenue for the recently completed fiscal year was $43.4 million, up 21%, or by $7.6 million, from the year prior.
A bulk of the gains―$6.4 million―was a “one-time infusion,” according to City Manager Robert Hall.
The amount was “what we received back from the county out of the $45 million we gave back due to the Redevelopment Agency dissolution,” which will not repeat, he said.
Hall recently started the position as city manager in Fountain Valley after serving as assistant city manager in Huntington Beach since 2005.
Fountain Valley was ranked at No. 19 on the Business Journal list, with 56,180 residents as of January, a gain of about 300 over the past year.
• The smallest city in OC, Villa Park, had a slight gain in population, to 5,900. The city has eight employees, unchanged from a year ago, and had about $2.8 million in 2012-2013 general fund revenue, up 4% year-over-year.
