Union contracts, crime statistics and a NASA scientist were
invoked as city employees pleaded for their jobs during a public
and a council workshop on the five-year budget reduction strategy,
which includes 13 layoffs.
Morgan Hill
Union contracts, crime statistics and a NASA scientist were invoked as city employees pleaded for their jobs during a public and a council workshop on the five-year budget reduction strategy, which includes 13 layoffs.
The Morgan Hill City Council has to cut $2.1 million from its budget each year for the next five years to make up for lagging property tax, sales tax and development-related revenues. City staff, led by City Manager Ed Tewes, came up with a five-year plan to restructure the city’s general fund and related funds to make up for losses and keep steady reserves.
The plan will deeply cut into city-provided services and lay off 13 city workers who provide them. Those workers have laid out why their jobs are important, with the help of union heads.
The workshops early this week will be followed by a public hearing 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 17555 Peak Ave. The council is expected to adopt the budget strategy at its Jan. 14 meeting.
Staff proposes gutting the community services portion of the Recreation and Community Services Department, resulting in the layoffs of two recreation coordinators and a community services and planning manager. Meanwhile, the Community Development Department could see a secretary, planner and two building inspectors lose their jobs.
At Tuesday night’s public workshop, the crowd of about 70 was an even mix of city employees and citizens. Another 60 people attended Wednesday night’s council meeting. Be it keeping the streetlights on, the police force strong or environmental programs intact, each attendee cheered their cause – but without many ideas for alternative ways to balance the budget.
For example, some city employees suggested saving a job or two by cutting pay or consolidating work hours for others. Acting Human Resources Director Brian Stott said these options weren’t possible without union negotiations. Layoffs, on the other hand, are.
Another popular idea Tuesday night was to cut management wages or positions. City managers aren’t union, so cutting their wages wouldn’t require lengthy negotiations. Tewes told the council Wednesday night that every 1 percent in management pay was equal to $40,000. Therefore, a 10 percent pay cut would save the city $400,000 per year.
Others, like AFSCME secretary treasurer Kad Corrales, a municipal services assistant in the city’s public works department, said she’d like to see an Adopt the Street Light program, akin to the popular Caltrans Adopt-a-Highway program, in which participants adopt a section of roadway and spend time and money maintaining it. Corrales said since some residents didn’t want to live in darkened neighborhoods, they should be willing to support streetlights being left on but not at the expense of a city worker.
After more than an hour of deliberations Tuesday over turning off street lights to save $150,000, letting some park grass die to save $20,000 and other miserly measures, CalFire South Bay Division Chief Bill Murdock piped up with a plan he says could save the city $1.2 million each year: have the city contract with them instead of Santa Clara County Fire Department for fire protection services. The city’s contract with county fire expires in September. The city is currently studying joining the county fire department as a possible cost-saving measure, Stott said. He was skeptical that CalFire could save money while providing the same level of service as the county.
Police Chief Bruce Cumming’s plan is to reduce his force from 39 officers to 36 over the next three years. As it happens, all three positions are now vacant. Stott noted that the 39th position was only recently authorized and never filled. In exchange for the on-paper-only reduction from 39 to 36 officers, Cumming would higher two municipal service officers, who would have paperwork and courier loads but couldn’t respond to anything dangerous. Municipal service officers cost about $50,000 less per year than a police officer. Cumming said the effect of working with fewer officers will be continued stress on the officers themselves, more overtime and cutting back on service-oriented programs to reduce crime.
“If I move a school resources officer to the streets, in my opinion, the school becomes less safe,” Cumming said. “It’s just moving the danger from one place to another.”
Councilman Greg Sellers wondered if cutting back officers would really save money in the long run, since paying for overtime is costly.
Police Officers Association President Shane Palsgrove said he wasn’t there to beg or ask for more, but to tell the council they have other areas to cut before going to officers.
“We are and have been operating with the bare minimum as it is. We have the fewest officers (per capita) in the county. Should we be dead last?” he said. Morgan Hill’s officer to resident ratio is 1 officer per 1,000 residents, the lowest in Santa Clara County. Gilroy’s is 1.21 officers per 1,000 residents.
Generally, the public expressed a desire to save jobs where possible.
“It’s cold, icy water out there that we’re throwing them into,” resident Frank Manocchio said. “We ought to stick together.”
Carole O’Hare said she’d rather have the street lights off than see city workers lose their jobs.
Environmental programs coordinator Rebecca Fotu, whose job is on the line, gave an impassioned speech Wednesday night.
“I’m no stranger to struggle or strife, but this is a little more disappointing than usual. I’m trying to make sense of what’s going on in this world and country,” she said.
Fotu, who was hired on full-time with the city a year ago, said she and her husband – who was recently laid off – had planned to build a life in Morgan Hill.
“Our dreams are being put off,” she said. “I really fell in love with this community, and I love this job. When I was hired a year ago, I was extremely excited. I could barely keep up with the ideas you all had to keep the community sustainable.”
Fotu said environmental impacts don’t wait for the economy to get better, and that a NASA scientist recently said the next 10 years are vital to stalling the effects of global climate change.
The city council didn’t suggest overhauling the budget reduction strategy, but offered a few directions.
Councilwoman Marby Lee was concerned with the skate park construction continuing, while other council members felt it would cost more to put off building it until later, since construction project costs typically rise.
Councilwoman Marilyn Librers, in her second council meeting, said the city already has a reputation as being unfriendly toward businesses, and with the Community Development Department cuts she was concerned that that trend would continue.
Sellers said he was concerned that the council would get close to passing or even passing the January cuts, only to go through the same thing once the state budget is finalized and the expected trickle-down city effects are realized.
