Untitled Document

This memo is in response to a Council member’s request for information on current vacant positions and the potential savings and budgetary impacts of leaving these positions vacant for a three-month or six-month period for next year’s budget.

Attached is a list of positions currently vacant, and the annual salaries for each position. The total annual salaries and benefits (at about 27%) for the vacant positions listed would be about $622,461 in the General Fund and about $299,212 in the Transportation Fund.

Also attached to this memorandum are Budget Working Papers from Department Heads indicating the operational and service impacts of leaving these positions vacant for an extended period of time. Most of these papers indicate that a substantial impact on service delivery in various areas would occur if these positions were not filled on a timely basis. In addition, a potential freeze would further contribute to the difficulty in service delivery we are already experiencing in some areas based on the tight labor market and lengthy recruiting efforts in many cases. For any of the Department Head positions, I believe a freeze could have a significant impact on our ability to provide the kind of quality services that are desired by citizens.

Consistent with our overall budget plan and strategy in past years, proposed and adopted budgets have normally included about $800,000 in appropriated fund balance to balance each year’s budget. This appropriation allows the adopted tax rate to be lower than would be required to achieve a balanced budget without the appropriation (2.6 cents lower in the proposed budget for 2000-2001.) However, our expectation is that this $800,000 will not be used in a given year, and will be available to be rolled over to the next budget year. In order to achieve this objective, we need to end each budget year with about $400,000 more in revenues than we budget, and with final expenditures about $400,000 less than we budget. We already rely on vacancies and salary savings from turnover each year as the primary way of achieving the $400,000 in savings on the expenditure side of the budget.

Based on Department Head recommendations and our overall budget plan as discussed above, I would strongly recommend that the proposed budget not be reduced by savings from a position freeze next year. If the Council wishes to reduce the budget by some amount based on a freeze of certain positions for a specified time period next year, I would recommend that the $800,000 appropriation of fund balance for next year be reduced by an amount corresponding to the budget reduction from a freeze.

Current Vacancies and Related Savings (p. 3).
Engineering Department (p.4).
Library (p. 5).
Manager’s Office (p. 7).
Parks & Recreation (p. 8).
Police Department (p. 10).
Planning Department (p. 11).
Public Works (p. 13).
Transportation Department (p. 16).