Hanging their hat on half a million dollars saved through
renegotiated labor contracts, the Morgan Hill City Council reached
consensus on $1.9 million of the $2.2 million recommended cuts
Wednesday night.
Hanging their hat on half a million dollars saved through renegotiated labor contracts, the Morgan Hill City Council reached consensus on $1.9 million of the $2.2 million recommended cuts Wednesday night.
The council attempted to shave $2.2 million from its budget each year for the next five years, faced with declining revenues from sales and property taxes and development-related fees. City Manager Ed Tewes recommended 13 layoffs and maintaining the previously agreed-upon 25 percent of a year’s revenue in reserves.
Three true layoffs were approved, a Community Development Department administrative secretary, a Finance Department accounting assistant and a custodian for the Community and Cultural Center.
The Recreation and Community Services, Council Records and Services Management, Grounds and the Morgan Hill Police departments have unclear futures. City staff, led by City Manager Ed Tewes, will come back to the council with more options in these areas, as the council couldn’t reach consensus on them.
Jobs preserved for now include the environmental programs coordinator, a groundskeeper and maintenance worker and City Clerk Irma Torrez, who has not yet decided whether she will take an early retirement bonus.
Recreation coordinators Karen Lengsfield and Phyllis Dieter and Recreation and Community Services Manager Julie Spier sat together as talk of consolidating their three positions into one or two began. They left the meeting at almost 11 p.m. shaken, but with jobs, at least through April.
“There’s still confusion about what all this means,” Lengsfield said. “It’s going to be interesting to see what the director comes up with.”
For now, the much discussed options of turning off most residential street lights, letting park grass die and removing two park playgrounds were deferred. Staff will come back with more details, and possibly more options.
As it stands, the council’s decisions total $1.9 million and would leave the city with almost 21 percent in reserves – about four percentage points off from the council’s budget sustainability goal of 25 percent of one year’s revenues by the 2012-13 fiscal year, or five years.
If labor negotiations don’t achieve any savings, the city will be left with savings of $1.5 million and 17 percent reserves in 2013.
If half of the council’s new goal, or $250,000, is saved through labor renegotiations, the council would save $1.7 million annually and 20 percent reserves in 2013.
Council members Greg Sellers and Marilyn Librers agreed that a 15 percent reserve was adequate considering the financial crisis facing the nation.
But Mayor Steve Tate said keeping the hard-earned 25 percent reserve that the council landed on when creating its sustainable budget strategy was crucial, especially considering that no one knows what the community’s financial forecast is. Coucnilwoman Marby Lee agreed, noting that the bottom of the financial crisis might not have been reached yet.
The council agreed with most of Tewes’s recommendations, including in the Community Development, Finance and Human Resources departments, effectively cutting off funding for five positions, but with various effects.
For example, one assistant planner has been contracted to the City of Cupertino, and so will keep their job with the city through the end of the fiscal year, or June 30.
Council has deferred decisions for later in the evening, or in the near future, on cutting back in the Community Services and Records Management Department, with Councilman Larry Carr concerned that mandatory deadlines, for elections and Freedom of Information Act responses, would be difficult to achieve with less staff.
