The City of Oakley was informed that they will receive an additional $445,000 in added property tax revenue which will allow them to do a variety of things. The City Staff will propose the following suggestions during tonight’s Oakley City Council meeting.
- Replace staff and positions that were lost in the economic downturn—9 positions being proposed
- Increase one-time merit bonus that Staff receive from $500 to $1,000.
- Senior Center Site Enhancement
- Irrigation and Landscaping Upgrades
- Updating City Website
- Concrete “Fill ins” around the City.
If you go:
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
6:30 P.M.
Oakley City Council Chambers
3231 Main Street, Oakley, CA
Here is a look at the Staff Report:
Background and Analysis
A month or so after the 2014-15 Budget was adopted, the City received the good news that property tax revenues would be greater than had been anticipated. This additional recurring revenue is approximately $450,000 and provides the opportunity the City has not had for the last few years to begin replacing some staff that was lost during the economic downturn. There are also a number of onetime items that, if done, would help reduce future recurring costs.
With regard to staffing, it would be of great help across almost all divisions/departments to bring on some additional part-time staff and extend some contract assistance to various operations:
- Contract and/or Part-time Laborer to Facilities Maintenance: This would allow our Facility Maintenance Custodian to catch up on the more thorough cleaning of the facilities and minimize or eliminate the need for him to grab other maintenance staff for catch up. $20,000+/-
- Part-time Payroll & Business License Clerk: The Finance team has been down one employee for years and all three are currently stretched. $25,000+/-
- Part-time Management Analyst for City Manager’s Office: this position can take some of the large load off of the Assistant to the City Manager, HR Manager, HR Assistant, and myself with miscellaneous tasks and projects. This position could be a graduate school student who is bright and capable and that needs flexible hours. $25,000 +/-
- Add Part-time Receptionist: This would provide general administrative support to not only the City Clerk’s Office, but to all divisions/departments that all could need assistance from time to time – (much of the work outside the Clerk’s Office would be in Public Works). $15,000 +/-
- Add a Part-Time Staffing to Rec. Division: This would be an “extra set of hands” for all Recreation’s activities, including an increased number of events. $25,000 +/-
- Transfer some in-house Parks assignments to a Maintenance Contractor and/or add seasonal maintenance staffing: our Parks team is stretched and we have evaluated whether bringing in an additional Parks employee or whether taking some off their plate is best. Transferring about $35,000 of a few more difficult landscape areas to one or more of our landscape maintenance contractors, or a combination of contractor and additional staffing will help alleviate the expanding workload.
- On-going maintenance, upgrades and lease costs for security cameras in the Parks and at key roadway intersections: If approved as another item on this agenda, we will need another $10,000 from the General Fund to support the expanded camera program at the City parks and cameras planned at key intersections.
- Full-time Assistant Engineer: This position was partially cut in previous years due to the slowdown of development and funds were budgeted this year for a part-time contract engineer. The work load is increasing and is expected to be steady for the coming years. Most of the cost is covered by developer fees and an “in-house” engineer at full-time is less expensive and more functional for the foreseeable future. The estimated General Fund impact is only about $20,000.
- Job Classification Adjustments: there are a handful of existing job classifications that could/should have been adjusted with the current year budget, but funds were thought to not be available for the adjustments. We would bring back any job classification changes to you for consideration after further research and preparation of modified job descriptions. For now, we request an appropriation of $35,000 to be available for these possible adjustments (that you would review prior to implementation).
These above items of this proposal would be recurring in nature and total about $210,000, and would be a significant help for the stretched Staff.
Another idea that is very worthy of consideration is to increase the one-time merit based bonus that the Council approved to take place in December from $500 per employee to $1,000. This would cost an additional $18,000+/- and, in conjunction with the staffing augmentations mentioned above, sends a strong message of support for the Team by providing more “hands on deck” and an additional financial acknowledgement.
The remaining $222,000 is proposed to be dedicated to a number of one-time, capital-type projects that have been waiting for a funding source and that will save money in the long run.
- Senior Center Site Enhancement: This project will upgrade the landscaping and replace the irrigation at the Senior Center building that isn’t able to adequately take care of the park area north of the building. $12,000+/-
- Irrigation and Landscaping Upgrades: This project will enhance and upgrade irrigation and landscaping along the key arterials such as Laurel Road, Empire Road, and Main Street. We are finding a myriad of problems with the irrigation and the spotty failures are causing landscaping to die and becoming a costly maintenance headache. More efficient irrigation will also save water and its associated expense. (Empire Road has the most issues). We are recommending $100,000 to help tackle this problem.
- Updating the City’s Website: The current site was completed in 2007 and was a huge upgrade to what was there previously and some upgrades were made in 2010; however, technology has improved and there are many cumbersome aspects to maintain the existing site and the overall look and functionality can be improved. The website is an important public information and economic development tool and we feel we should begin soliciting proposals for significant updates, or a complete new site. While more may be needed for extra “bells and whistles”, $35,000 for this fiscal year should get us well on our way for the upgrades, or a new site.
- Concrete “fill ins” at various sidewalk and landscaped areas: We have a number of areas, as shown in the examples below, that are weed headaches and potential safety hazards. We also have some medians that get very narrow and they are hard to irrigate well. Using some stamped, colored concrete would look nice and basically take the maintenance cost down to zero. $75,000 +/-.
To view the Staff Report, click the link
1 comment
Spend more money on police since your letting our city turn into Antioch.
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