Marina incumbents say the city’s budget looks rosy, but challengers call it red.

Amid the heated battle for Marina City Council seats, city staffers on Oct. 8 sought to deflate residents’ concerns about city finances, which opposition candidates have seized as a focal campaign issue.

City Manager Anthony Altfeld says scheduling the budget meeting– less than a month before the election– was not politically motivated. The City Council, he says, requested the meeting after residents presented financial questions during public comments.

Councilwoman Nancy Amadeo, who is running to keep her appointed council seat, says some residents and candidates have a false impression about the budget.

“The misconception is that we are in a deficit, but we are far from a deficit,” she says.

The city is expected to spend $38.5 million this fiscal year and bring in $28.5 million. Reserves will cover the $10 million budget gap, and the city is still projected to have $21.5 million in its coffers at the end of the year. General Fund revenues are estimated at $13.1 million, which is higher than last year thanks to the addition of Wal-Mart and other retail stores at The Dunes shopping center, according to Altfeld. But expenses exceed revenues by $5.3 million.

Candidates David Burnett, Frank O’Connell and Bruce Delgado, who are challenging the incumbents and running as a slate backed by labor unions, the Sierra Club and the Marina Democratic Club, want to curtail what they call deficit spending.

Burnett says the budget meeting was set up to make the sitting councilmembers look good. “What they are trying to do now is do some damage control and cover up,” he says. “They are trying to put lipstick on the $10 million deficit.”

Amadeo disputes this. “The way they’ve been talking about the budget as a deficit is their way of making us look bad. This [meeting] is just putting the facts out there. How [residents] interpret it is up to them.”