Finance Highlights 2009 0217 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Interim Finance Director Carter explained the Financial Overview which was part of the "Preliminary Budget Reductions" 2009-2010 and PowerPoint presentation. Interim Assistant City Manager Diaz stated that each Department will briefly explain their strategy and options to be considered for Council in the handouts of the PowerPoint presentation. After each department presented their reduction strategies, Hollister explained the Supplemental Strategies. Some of the strategies that were touched included the Golden Handshake, which offers employees that are 50 years of age and vested in the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) system the opportunity to take an early retirement with 2 years additional service credit. This will be done by job classification or offered citywide that fit into the reductions however would not apply to management or public safety. The cost in terms of PERS does not appear to be substantial at this time. Alternative work weeks, furloughs, as well as the ability to have full- time positions go to part-time are options that have been discussed. The reduction of the work week is also open for further discussion. Mayor Santos stated that time was spent discussing the reduction of expenditures however there was no discuss of revenue enhancements. Mayor Santos addressed his concern of the crises the city is facing and recommended the City implement the charter provision to raise property taxes, the revenue will be able to incur some of the public safety costs. Mayor Santos stated that he was told by our two state legislators the reason why they couldn't help us with our Charter provision is because there was no tax increase agreement in the proposed budget. Santos stated that it is for this reason; the City should be allowed to raise taxes to overcome some of the budget constraints. Mayor Santos again asked staff to contact the legislative leaders by form of a letter to explain the crisis and what the impact of cutting 58 jobs would do to the city. Mayor Santos stated that he is not thrilled at cutting positions with the teenagers because it is very critical that they have some type of a job. He instructed staff to look at revenue enhancements and stated that we need to get our state legislators to finally come to grips with what he believes are minor adjustments which cari make a lot of difference to our city. Mayor Santos stated that he was not ready to act on the proposed reductions nor was he ready to make a recommendation. He asked that the Committee meet again with staff for continued review of this process. He also mentioned contacting Assemblymember Hayashi and Senator Corbett and asks them to act on our behalf. Hollister stated that staff knows the cuts will be painful even at the 5% level; however the goal is to achieve these reductions without having to physically layoff full-time employees. He also informed the Committee that everything will be done to transfer employees within the organization. Councilmember Prola proposed keeping the positions that have been targeted for elimination on the books even though they will not be filled. He believes that when the economy makes aturn- a-round, it will be a lot quicker to fill if that position is already on the books. Councilmember Prola expressed his concern in closing two libraries in areas he thinks they are needed the most. The south and north areas would have no library and the citizens in those areas would have to travel downtown to the Main Library or the Manor area. He feels that if reductions are necessary, then perhaps there should be reductions of hours of all libraries so that there would be no closures. He also expressed his disappointment that the state chose to increase sales tax to enhance revenue. 3