Third of a series
Re “Nachbar’s Rainy Day Strategy for Holding Jobs Open”
Going for the best possible human and fiscal outcomes, here is City Manager John Nachbar’s perspective on the ephemeral layoff of 14 City Hall staffers at the end of last month:
By eliminating a total of 20 positions, including a half-dozen workers who have accepted golden handshakes, the revenue-hurting city is saving $2 million vs. the cost of y-rating the 14 laid off workers, estimated to be “in the tens of thousands of dollars.”
Y-rating is the concept of transferring the 14 to previously unfilled positions at their present rate of pay regardless of the salary that the position called for.
“The tens of thousands” “is not a lot,” Mr. Nachbar says.
“I fully acknowledge that it is generous to the employees.”
The savings stems from subtracting 20 positions, each of which is estimated to be worth $100,000 a year, including health benefits.
“Even though a position comes open, when someone leaves for any reason,” said Mr. Nachbar, “a department head comes in and says, ‘Nachbar, I want to fill this position.’ I say ‘No, we are going to hold this vacant.’
“I have done that with a number of positions. Even when a department head says, ‘I can’t live without the position,’ I have told the persons, ‘I know you need to fill it. But we are in tough fiscal times. We probably are going to be eliminating employees. I am going to force you to live without that position for awhile.’
“In some cases, we have hired temporary help to get by during the interim period.
“Knowing that I was eventually going to be eliminating positions, I have been very stingy about bringing on (new) fulltime employees.
“I have been stingy about allowing new people outside this organization to come in. As a result, I had some fulltime vacancies (to offer to the laid off staffers).
“I have been planning ahead,” Mr. Nachbar said, “anticipating that at some point we might need to find a home for existing fulltime employees.”
