AGENDA #5
BUDGET WORKING PAPER
TO: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
FROM: Bill Letteri, Public Works Director
SUBJECT: Downtown Service Expansion
DATE: May 17, 2006
The purpose of this memorandum is to identify and discuss alternatives other than additional staffing for expanding downtown services provided by the Landscape Division starting in fiscal year 2006-07.
BACKGROUND
As part of the budget submittal for the Public Works Department next year, an additional groundskeeper position was identified for expansion of downtown services starting July 1, 2006. The cost in fiscal year 2006-07 related to this requested staff expansion would be $36,800. When this request was discussed at a budget working session, the Council indicated support of expansion of this service, but requested information as to whether or not it could be achieved without expansion of the department’s current staffing.
DISCUSSION
Based on the discussion with Council, we considered three possible options for expanding our downtown program:
We do not recommend either of the first two options for the same reasons. The staff used both for removal of vegetative waste and seasonal removal of leaves is within departmental operations other than the Landscape Division. Such staff members are part of collection crews within their respective divisions and are essential for adherence to established service schedules. Furthermore, these staff members are used for other services in addition to the specifically cited work. For example, solid waste crews collect weekly residential municipal solid waste other than vegetative debris throughout the year and streets crews attend to their primary function of providing street maintenance when curbside leaf collection is not operational. Transfer of positions from either program to the Landscape Division would reduce the functionality of respective crews in these other operations. Not only would such transfers present logistical challenges, but the ultimate impact would be reduction of public services within the specific programs from which the staff were transferred.
We have noted in prior discussions of workload and staffing levels within landscape operations that Chapel Hill is minimally staffed compared to similar sized municipalities and national recommended standards. According to the Comprehensive Maintenance and Repair Program, State of Maryland, the average ratio for efficient and effective grounds maintenance would be one position per 8 to 32 acres of grounds to be maintained, depending on the category of grounds to be maintained and the service level desired per category. Given our acreage, this would be 50 full-time employees; we have 16. We believe that we have no extra staffing in any of our grounds maintenance work programs.
Any reduction of staffing would result in service level reductions. We believe that our service levels have evolved over time in response to what is acceptable to the community. For example, resources are dedicated to maintenance at cemeteries in response to citizen demands. This same case can be made for maintenance at such public areas as town facilities, including Town Hall, Library, Police and Fire stations; public housing; and park and ride lots. Accordingly, we do not propose diverting staff assigned to such programs because we do not recommend service reductions in any of these areas.
RECOMMENDATION
We recommend that, if the Council wishes to expand the scope of services to downtown areas, such program expansion be achieved through an additional position dedicated to such services. We believe this approach is preferable to the reduction of other services that would result from a transfer of staff, either within the Landscape Division, or from other divisions within the Public Works Department. We also would recommend consideration of an increase in the downtown service district charge to cover all or a portion of the increased cost.