The sudden and drastic budget cuts the Santa Monica City Council is making were inevitable, even without a coronavirus shutdown, according to a prominent member of a disbanded citizen's budget advisory committee.

The dramatic impact of the pandemic only accelerated the layoffs and service cuts needed to address years of unbridled spending and a ballooning pension debt, said Dominic Gomez, a former member of the Community Compensation Advisory Committee. [and ACTION Vice-President]

"At the end of the day, the City was headed for a fiscal reckoning absent this pandemic," Gomez told the Lookout. "What the pandemic did was accelerate what the City had to entertain.

"We've been sounding alarm bells for not weeks or months but years, while the City is spending money at a rate that is breathtaking," said Gomez, the former CEO of Movius Interactive.

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