Even though water district staff spent more than directors
budgeted for overtime expenses for fiscal year ending in June 2009,
directors are glad to see significant reductions in both travel and
overtime costs from the previous year.
Even though water district staff spent more than directors budgeted for overtime expenses for fiscal year ending in June 2009, directors are glad to see significant reductions in both travel and overtime costs from the previous year.
In a report presented to the Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors last month, staff noted that overtime costs from July 2008 to June 2009 dropped by about 26 percent. Travel expenses for conferences, seminars and training – including money spent on meals, lodging, mileage, airfare and registration fees – dropped by about 30 percent from the 2007-2008 fiscal year.
The district’s directors decided to “take a hard look” at the expenses after previous reports on overtime and travel expenses showed that local staff had spent more in these areas than similarly sized water districts in California, according to board Chairman Sig Sanchez.
“I’m pleased with the (latest) report,” Sanchez said. “Staff has done an excellent job reducing overtime and travel expenses. In previous years, people were traveling all over the place, going to meetings and conventions.”
A staff-produced spreadsheet listing individual travel expenses shows fewer out-of-state, on-the-clock trips taken by district employees than in earlier years, Sanchez noted.
Travel expenses for fiscal year 2009, which went from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, totaled about $1.24 million. During fiscal year 2008, staff spent about $1.78 million on travel.
Director Rosemary Kamei said that last year the board let staff know that lowering travel and overtime costs is “a priority,” due to the ongoing economic downturn that has resulted in declining property tax and water charge revenues.
By directing staff to produce such reports on a quarterly basis, and to prioritize the most necessary travel requests, the district has been able to bring these costs down, Kamei said.
“We’re trying to do things much more efficiently and wisely. We’re always looking at ways to do reductions,” Kamei said.
In 2007-2008, employees worked a total of about $710,000 worth of overtime hours, compared to about $529,000 in 2008-2009.
That’s still about 5 percent more than was budgeted for the year, an overdraft that Sanchez attributes largely to the need to staff some district facilities such as treatment plants 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“The treatment plant operators are not easy to hire. That’s where a big part of the overtime came from,” Sanchez said.
Thirty-five water plant operators accounted for about $265,000 worth of overtime, or about 50 percent of the total, for fiscal year 2009, according to the district staff report. One of these employees earned almost $21,000 in overtime pay for the year.
The combined travel and overtime costs of $1.77 million for fiscal year 2009 are less than .5 percent of the district’s total budget of $411 million for fiscal year 2008. The budget for the current year is about $305 million, representing budget reductions mostly achieved by delaying a number of construction and maintenance projects.
The last six months of fiscal year 2008, from January to June 2008, district staff reported spending a combined $1.3 million on travel and overtime expenses.
A Times analysis of those costs showed that the water district spent more on travel and less on overtime than two similarly sized northern California water districts – the East Bay Municipal Utility District and the Contra Costa Water District.
In response to directors’ request to cut travel costs, managers have cut back on trips to training and seminars that are not necessary, but would have been approved in recent years because they provided knowledge and skills beyond state requirements, district Spokeswoman Susan Siravo said.
“State regulatory agencies have to have certain training for certain employees,” Siravo said. “Other kinds of training or seminars to enhance our skills – that’s something we like to do but we can still do our jobs without attending.”
Each department within the district has an individual budget for travel and training expenses, Siravo said.
For fiscal year 2009, the total travel costs came in well under budget, at about 52 percent of funds allocated for these expenses.
