Fullerton City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve a $283.4 million citywide budget for the Fiscal Year 2026-2027 that implements $6.9 million in cuts to public safety, library services and municipal operations.
The fiscal plan addresses a structural deficit issue within the city’s $147.2 million general fund by slashing $1.8 million in Operating Reductions and eliminating $5.1 million in funding for 26 vacant full-time staff positions.
Under the approved budget, the Fullerton Public Library faces elimination of its entire $209,000 book collection budget for the adult and teen sections, alongside a $30,000 cut to electronic resource subscriptions, including job assistance and homework help tools.
These cuts are expected to be “temporarily subsidized” by the Fullerton Public Library Foundation and Friends of the Fullerton Public Library, two non-profit organizations that aid in its support.
The measure also defunds a full-time library technology assistant position valued at $94,797, cuts Hunt Library security by $175,052 and reduces Hunt Library staffing and programming by $40,000.
To keep facilities open six days a week, the budget has allocated $64,797 from workers’ compensation reserves to fund nonregular hours across three part-time positions.
The Fullerton Fire Department now leaves its fire deputy and fire marshal positions vacant to save $527,343. As a result, field fire code enforcement will be shared among the fire chief and division chiefs. A civilian assistant fire marshal will be responsible for administrative code duties.
The fire department also faces reductions of $92,000 in plan check backup services, $26,000 in paramedic subscription administrative costs and $21,000 in emergency medical service furniture replacements.
The Fullerton Police Department leaves six vacant sworn safety positions unfunded, including four officers, one corporal and one lieutenant, saving $1.6 million alongside the elimination of three part-time civilian support positions.
To backfill increased safety demands, the proposed budget added $395,000 to the police overtime budget and diverted $300,000 of the group insurance fund directly into overtime to preserve the city’s “Operation Clean Streets” initiative.
City staff noted that the unfunding and inability to fill vacant positions will decrease the city’s capacity to support necessary public services, which may result in service impacts to the local community.
Citywide maintenance operations face additional cutbacks, including a $150,000 reduction to the municipal graffiti abatement contract that cuts the city’s active cleanup fleet from two trucks down to one.
During the meeting’s public hearing, opponents to the proposed budget noted concerns with how reduced staffing levels will impact the city’s day-to-day operations.
District 2 Mayor Pro Tem Nicholas Dunlap stated that this has been a challenging process, but that these decisions were necessary to balance the city’s budget.
“We’re not just facing a deficit, we’re dealing with a deficit,” Dunlap said. “We’re dealing with making the cuts and adjustments that we have to make because we’ve got to get by.”
The approved budget comes over a month after the start of Fullerton’s 2026-2027 fiscal year, after a forensic audit conducted by Grand Thornton Risk Advisory Services in June found a $2.9 million accounting error in the 2025-2026 budget.