Second of two parts
Re “City Hall to Eliminate 8 to 12 Managers”
Burdened by a budget deficit whose exact dimensions and terminus are not known, City Manager Mark Scott says that he is determined to “try and get big-ticket salaries” off the payroll in City Hall, not through layoffs but voluntary retirement-incentives.
“Under the California retirement system plan we are using,” Mr. Scott said, “ we would have to agree not to replace that position. That is a way of getting smaller without having to lay somebody off. To the extent some big salaries are involved, that can help to keep other positions that don’t cost as much. It is a way of getting the biggest bang for your buck.”
When will the winnowing begin?
“Almost immediately.”
Officially, the final say on this strategy to shave 8 to 12 department managers age 50 and over will accrue to the City Council.
The City Manager’s ultimate objective is to reduce the 720-person City Hall roster to affordable size. The over-50s will not be the only targets, just the first one.
“Since, according to all projections, we are going to have this (wheezing) economy 10 years from now, we have to find ways we can get smaller,” Mr. Scott said.
By springtime, some city services may be affected. “Depends on what kind of response we get with our retirement incentives,” he said.
Question: Based on your experience as a city manager in Beverly Hills and Spartanburg, S.C., what response should be expected from the retirement-incentive offers?
“It’s a mixed equation. You really don’t gain anything to the extent you incentize somebody who would have retired anyway. You always have to say to yourself, ‘I got people to take it. Did I get that because of the incentive? Or just because they were ready?’
“My experience is, you do get a positive response. My observation is, one-third or more would have retired anyway. So it is a two-year incentive, two extra years of retirement credit.”
Question: Why are managers your first stop?
“Frankly, it is harder to cut direct-service provider positions than it is to cut management. It doesn’t mean the management people aren’t valuable.
“This is not a revolutionary concept. It is happening all over the state.”
Question: How will you massage morale during this transition period?
“Not only is it possible for (these personnel moves) to affect morale, morale matters. We will talk to people as openly, candidly as we can about what we are doing. Our employees have heard us talk about this a lot during the past six months.”
Question: Are people prepared?
“You never know.”
Question: How will you inform the chosen managers?
“The retirement incentive is not a hard thing to inform people about. It is not a negative because it is totally voluntary. If anything, some people will be bothered that they were not offered a retirement incentive. Now that is a different kind of morale issue. ‘Why should only the management people get this offer.’
“For every position we cut, we have to eliminate a position. I can’t cut some of those direct-service provider positions. That isn’t a hard thing to do. We will notify everyone. I call meetings, and invite everybody to come. We did this a year ago. Only two people took it.”
Question: If not enough managers accept your offers, where do you turn next?
“I have to be careful where we offer it because we have to be prepared to eliminate the position. I can’t offer it to a police officer or a firefighter because I am not in a position to be cutting police officers or firefighters.”
Question: Will some of them eventually be cut?
“I hope not because I don’t think we are overstaffed there. Could it affect the police and fire departments in other ways? Sure. Everybody is going to share in this.”
Question: Is any other department out of bounds?
“No.”
Question: Psychologically, what is the secret of making this concept work?
“Let me step back for a moment. Certainly golden handshakes are not going to be all that we do. Long term, it is a bigger equation than that: Figure out how to do government differently, and maybe doing cuts we don’t feel good about.
“Just depends on where a lot of things go in the next few months — in the state of California and sales tax receipts, for example.
“At the end of February, we will collect our business taxes. If that comes back 10 percent lower than we expect, bad news. Sales tax continue to disappoint us. Depending on where this goes, we will have to decide how deep we have to go in trying to fix this, and how much of the Reserve Fund we are willing to use up in one year.
“I try my best not to have this kind of situation destroy people’s sense of security in the jobs they do, their pride in the organization they belong to. That means trying to communicate with people what is going on, trying to show them we will avoid what we can. There is nothing in the world I would rather do less than walk into a room, sit down with somebody, and say, ‘I’m going to have to cut your position.’”
Mr. Scott said that he will need to eliminate more than the 8 to 12 persons/positions he referred to at the outset.
“We have been freezing positions and eliminating them as they become vacant, too,” he said. “But we are not having as many people leaving as normal. That may affect people who decide not to do the retirement incentive, too. In this uncertain economy, they may be saying to themselves, ‘If I am 57 years old and not ready to stop working, maybe I can’t afford to take two years’ retirement. I need to work until I’m 65, and I can’t find another job.’
“All of a sudden, we have very few people leaving city employment because of the recession.”
The next personnel development is expected any day.
