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The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton

Volume 113 Issue 14

Fullerton officials at odds as city anticipates $19 million deficit

Softball extends win streak to 11 JEREMY JIMENEZ Staff Writer

MARGARET TREJO / DAILY TITAN

Alex Pelayo (left), a barista at Night Owl Cafe in downtown Fullerton, said that the pandemic forced small businesses to cut costs to offset fees. MELANIE NGUYEN Asst. Editor

MARGARET TREJO MARIO LEAL ALEXIS DE LA CRUZ LUIS LEMUS Staff Writers

As Fullerton struggles to find new ways to generate revenue and retain staff to sustain its programs, the city lacks a clear path to financial recovery as city hall officials project the budget to decline over the next five years. According to the Fullerton city

management’s proposed budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the city expects an $8 million operating surplus. However, the city projected a $19 million deficit within the next five years. Fred Jung, the mayor of Fullerton, said the city council left several positions vacant in order to minimize city expenses, such as the parks and recreation director position and the transportation and circulation commission. The Fullerton city manager, Eric Levitt, said competing with salaries offered by other states is part of the staffing struggle.

“We have been a little bit on the lower end, as far as market comparisons with our salaries compared to other states,” Levitt said. The director of parks and recreation in Fullerton was paid the fourth lowest in the state of California, according to the California Controller's data from 2021. Fullerton’s director of parks and recreation was paid about $86,000 in salary and benefits. The next highest-paid parks and recreation director was in Tustin, who was paid about $508,000 more than the Fullerton parks and recreation director.

Another ongoing issue within the city is keeping up with the increase of pension cost for previous and current employees. Over the next few decades as city employees begin to retire, Fullerton will need to pay out their pensions. Fullerton is a high-risk city when it comes to pension obligations, according to the auditor of the state of California. As of last fiscal year, the city’s total unpaid pension liability totals just under $283 million. SEE FUNDS

Arab American culture shines at Glow Night LUIS VIZCAINO Staff Writer

Throughout April, SWANA hosted four events to celebrate Arab American heritage, ending off the month with a night of fun and food at the Becker Amphitheater on Thursday. Between 150 and 200 attendees came out to celebrate the occasion with cultural food and music. “We decided to call it ‘Glow Night’ to bring light to the culture, the community, the traditions, the rich history and everything Arab Americans have contributed to American society,” said Mary Chammas, co-president and founder of the SWANA organization at Cal State Fullerton. Belly Dancers OC came to entertain students during the night event, inviting them to dance towards the end of their performance. The performers’ participation in the event

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comes as a change to SWANA’s regular dabke performance, a traditional Arab line or circle dance involving stomping. “We’ve done dabke every year, we actually have it every fall semester, so since it’s spring semester we wanted to do something different, just a different twist on Arab heritage,” said Aya Boukai, vice president of SWANA. “I really enjoyed the belly dancing, I thought that was really cool and a cool way to represent the culture and the food’s really good,” said Juwairya Mayet, a business administration major and member of SWANA. At the beginning of the event, people signed in and lined up for free shawarmas from Shawarma Loca, a dish of Turkish descent cooked by layering meats and cooking them upright on a rotating skewer and served on a pita bread. A vendor from Little Arabia in

Santa Ana, Victory Sweets, provided fresh Lebanese knafeh, a treat with a baked crust and sweet syrup on top of a bed of cheese, with kaak, sweet sesame bread. Knafeh can be served alone or sandwiched between the kaak. Students from other universities came to join CSUF SWANA at the celebration of Arab heritage. Omar Shafik is a business major student and part of the Middle Eastern Student Association at Cal Poly Pomona, who came to CSUF to partake in the cultural celebrations. “I think it’s amazing, honestly, set up really nicely. The food was great, the music was good, and I really liked the photo booth,” Shafik said. SWANA has been an organization on campus for five years, acting independently and functioning as an umbrella organization for nine other SWANA-related student groups and organizations.

“On campus, we don’t really have any campus planned events or heritage months events,” said Talia Boukhalil, co-president of SWANA. “For example, the campus usually puts on women’s heritage month events or Indigenous month, but they don’t do that for our community.” Earlier this month, Fullerton council member Ahmad Zahra proclaimed the month of April as Arab Heritage month for the city, presenting a certificate to members of SWANA. On April 13, 2023, a bill was proposed to the State Assembly to recognize every April as the official Arab Heritage month in California. With all these advances being made to honor the Arab community, the SWANA organization has not been slowing down and has been pushing for the creation of a resource center for SWANA students on campus since 2018, which is finally said to open in fall 2023.

Cal State Fullerton’s softball team has now won 11 straight games after sweeping Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in a three-game series away over the weekend. Dominant pitching has highlighted the Titans' winning streak, including six shutouts and three games in which the team only allowed one run. Before play on Friday, Rainey owned a 1.11 ERA, which was good for 10th best nationwide, while counterpart Sutherlin’s 1.46 ERA was ranked 27th. Sutherlin’s 185 strikeouts also placed her at 14th in the country for that category. Coming off of three straight Pitcher of the Week honors, Suthlerlin did not allow an earned run in either of her starts against the Mustangs, both resulting in a Titans' victory. Sutherlin improved her record to 17-7 and has won each of her last eight appearances on the mound. In her start on Friday, Rainey labored through a tough third inning in which she allowed three runs. However, she bounced back by not allowing another run the rest of the way, improving her season record to 8-4. The three runs allowed in this game were the most runs allowed by the Titans at any point during their 11 game winning streak. Offensively, outfielder Bailey Wallace had a breakout performance at the plate on Friday. Wallace notched her first three-hit performance of the season, highlighted by her first collegiate home-run in the third inning. Wallace finished with a team-high five RBIs over the course of the series. The Titans remain in first place in the Big West standings, a position they have held since their series sweep against UC San Diego two weeks ago. Looking ahead, the Titans’ final two series of the regular season come against two top competitors in the Big West, Long Beach State and Hawaiʻi. Hawaiʻi will visit Anderson Family Field on Friday for the beginning of a three-game series. First pitch is set for 6 pm.