Times are tough, and many City Council members say budget
cutbacks and layoffs have created a challenging environment for
Gilroy’s city employees. However, the council decided this evening
that spending money on a service awards ceremony and barbecue was
not the best way to improve morale for city staff.
Times are tough, and many City Council members say budget cutbacks and layoffs have created a challenging environment for Gilroy’s city employees. However, the council decided this evening that spending money on a service awards ceremony and barbecue was not the best way to improve morale for city staff.
Council members voted 5-2 against spending $10,000 to reinstate the service awards, which were initially estimated to cost $16,000.
Instead, the council urged City Administrator Thomas Haglund to gain feedback from city employees to come up with other ideas of ways to build morale and then bring them to the council’s attention.
“We have to draw our line somewhere,” Councilman Perry Woodward said. “To me, this falls right below the line for now. As far as spending money to buy awards, that can be deferred when city employees are not being furloughed, when fire stations are not being browned out.”
The council voted in May 2008 – on the recommendation of city staff – to eliminate the barbecue and the employee awards among nearly $6 million in budget cuts. The city saved $10,531 on the barbecue and $15,648 on the awards, which range in price and are related to number of years worked.
However, a couple of council members became concerned about city morale after an e-mail recently sent by a city employee stated that employees were upset that they were receiving certificates at an employee-organized potluck in lieu of the city-funded barbecue and service awards ceremony of the past. Some council members felt that they were intentionally not invited to the potluck, though they had been in years past.
Councilwoman Cat Tucker addressed the subject of improving employee morale Monday, and Councilman Craig Gartman specifically expressed desire to reinstate the service awards ceremony. The two council members were the only ones to vote in favor of bringing back the ceremony. No one from the audience spoke on the matter during the sparsely attended meeting.
“I just want to make the effort to let employees know that we appreciate their effort and we feel their pain, and sometimes that doesn’t come across,” Tucker said.
Tucker suggested that council members schedule luncheons with 10 randomly picked employees at a time to hear their input and to build relationships. Councilman Bob Dillon, who opposed spending money on the awards ceremony, liked the idea of the lunches, saying they would not have to be an elaborate affair.
Still, some council members did not like the idea of imposing such programs on employees.
“I really don’t want to sit up here and decide what we’re going to do without getting any input from the employees,” Councilman Dion Bracco said. “Maybe they don’t want to sit down with us.”
Bracco said many people had told him within past the past couple of weeks that they should not waste money on the awards ceremony and barbecue, and he disputed the statement that city employees have a morale problem.
Councilman Peter Arellano said he believes there is a morale problem given the current financial crisis, but he did not think a mandatory luncheon was necessarily the way to solve the problem.
“I don’t know if there’s anything that I can say to comfort (city staff),” he said.
On the other hand, Gartman said he had heard from close to 30 city workers who had expressed discontent in light of the budget cutbacks and layoffs, and he believed that the service awards were meaningful to many workers.
“This not something that just came up,” Gartman said of morale issues. “This is something that’s been growing for a long period of time.”
Mayor Al Pinhero asked for input from City Administrator Tom Haglund, who indicated that city training programs could be a bigger boon than the awards event. He also talked about the need to build a sense of team both within individual city departments and among city employees and the the council as a whole.
“At a very basic level, I want to discuss with employees what might work for them in terms of building team and morale,” he said.
Haglund agreed to solicit input from city staff and then tell council members of his findings during a January retreat.
