San Carlos City Management Agrees to Significant Cut in Pay and Benefits.

5.3% Reduction in Pay and Benefits

The City of San Carlos announced today that it has reached an agreement with Management Unit employees for pay and benefit reductions that start on July 1, 2010.  This is the third time that Management Unit employees have agreed to salary and benefit reductions since the current Salary & Benefit Resolution was adopted in July 2008.    These reductions will be considered by the City Council in this coming Monday’s meeting.

According to the press release, the total savings from canceling the cost of living increase this past March combined with the most recent cuts that will take place on July 1 will amount to $360,000.  A sizable portion of these savings will come from a 1.5% cut in base salary across the board.   Kudos to the City employees for taking this difficult step during such tough financial times.  There is no easy or painless solution to solving the City’s structural deficit, and there are many difficult decisions still to be made to close the gap.   But every contribution is significant, and this gesture on behalf of the employees of the City of San Carlos is big, both literally and symbolically.

For complete details on the proposed pay and benefit cuts, click here for the complete press release.

San Carlos City Council Votes to Dissolve Belmont/San Carlos Fire JPA…

“No Turning Back”

Despite the warning from one Belmont Council member that “If they go through with this, I for one will never reconsider them again…”

…and despite the fact that all but two of the many public speakers who addressed the Council tonight were either against the dissolution of the JPA, or asked that the Council at least delay the decision….

…and despite the fact that Belmont Mayor Christine Wozniak and Councilman Warren Lieberman were in attendance, with Councilman Lieberman speaking quite eloquently in advising the Council to not move ahead with plans to notify Belmont of their intent to dissolve the Belmont/San Carlos Fire Department….

Despite all of this unified opposition — the San Carlos City Council once again flew in the face of public opinion and voted 3-2 to approve this measure, which effectively notifies Belmont of our intent to dissolve Belmont/San Carlos Fire Department within 18 months.

For those of you who are keeping track of these key votes for re-election day, here’s how the vote went down:

• Yes (deliver notification to Belmont) : Klein, Royce, Ahmad.
• No (do not deliver notification to Belmont) : Grocott, Grassilli.

Delay Measure Also Shot Down..

Councilman Bob Grassilli, noting that the Fire Chief and the Fire Department Union were already working with surrounding communities to investigate a possible consolidation with the existing Belmont/San Carlos JPA, moved for a substitute measure which would have delayed the vote on tonight’s measure by 90 days — thus allowing the Council to get more information on consolidation options before notifying Belmont.   But this substitute measure was also voted down by the identical vote outcome as above.

The debate was impassioned on both sides.  Councilman Klein Grocott aptly noted that “all of the other agencies are watching us right now” to see how we handle this situation.   Councilman Ahmad reiterated that the city is “broke”, and Councilman Klein stated that we’ve had 4 years to fix this problem with the JPA in the first place, and since December of 2009 to get data on consolidation.

When The Other “Boot” Drops.

It will be interesting to see Belmont’s reaction to tonight’s vote, and to their receipt of our official intent to dissolve the Joint Fire Department.  But that might be a moot point anyway, because one thing is for certain — those Council members who are hell-bent on outsourcing the San Carlos Fire Department to Cal Fire just won a huge victory tonight.  Step 1 was to extract themselves from the JPA and to effectively regain 100% control of the fire service for San Carlos.   That opens the door to Step 2, which is to package up what’s left and sell it to the State of California.

Regardless, it was a sad night for the members of the Belmont/San Carlos Fire Department.  Or what’s left of it.

It’s Time to Take Another Look at Budget Cuts in San Carlos.

The “Other” Option.

Last night, after listening to nearly two hours of public commentary which was unanimously and vehemently against outsourcing the San Carlos Police and Fire services, the City Council of San Carlos nonetheless advised the City Manager’s staff to continue investigating outsourcing as the primary option for balancing the budget in San Carlos.    (It makes one wonder what the purpose of speaking at the Council meeting accomplishes?)   But ironically, continuing to investigate this option is probably not a bad idea, because I believe they will find that cost savings that are being touted are severely overestimated, in part because they’re being gleaned from very preliminary proposals from both the Sheriff’s office and Cal Fire — AND because the level of service outlined in both proposals are not the same level of service that we have today.   It will be interesting to see what the savings really look like when a more accurate comparison is done.  Apples to apples.

But what about the “other” path that was proposed by the City Manager two weeks ago — the path that called for “cuts across the board,” instead of outsourcing  Fire and Police Departments?    After all, the whole reason that outsourcing is being so heavily pushed by the City was to avoid the draconian cuts that were proposed in this path.  But have we given up on looking into budget cuts?   I hope not, because on further analysis of what has been done to date, it’s very evident that more work needs to be done.

Flatter, not Fatter.

I have been through enough Silicon Valley re-organizations to know that cost savings are achieved in a re-org by “flattening” an organization.  In other words, you end up having more employees reporting to fewer managers.  It’s called efficiency, and it’s a  key reason why middle-level managers are always a prime target during layoffs. … Click Here to Continue Reading

Is Cal Fire the Right Solution for San Carlos?

A Great Partner — But Maybe Not the Right Solution.

Before anyone fires up the hate mail, this post is NOT about bashing Cal Fire.  Quite the contrary.  Cal Fire’s business model of providing rapid-response advanced life support (ALS), combined with wild-land fire expertise is a perfect fit for the communities that they serve locally, such as Emerald Hills, La Honda, and some of the remote parts of San Mateo.   Their economy of scale, and expertise in covering large remote geographic locations adds significant value that these communities couldn’t provide on their own.  They’ve become ubiquitous in the growing communities in the Sierra Foothills.

And make no mistake, Cal Fire and the Belmont-San Carlos Fire Departments already work together on a daily basis.   Between multiple engine responses, station coverages, and multi-agency training, these departments must work seamlessly together.  In talking with the local firefighters in San Carlos, they have had nothing but positive things to say about the crews that staff the local Cal Fire stations.

But when you examine the focus and core strengths that make Cal Fire a great fit for their current communities and compare them to the unique requirements posed by San Carlos, one has to wonder whether they’re right solution for San Carlos — or,  whether San Carlos is a good fit for Cal Fire.

Key Elements Missing?

From a firefighting standpoint, San Carlos differs quite a bit from Emerald Hills and La Honda in several areas.  San Carlos has multi-story buildings, blocks of industrial companies, and a heavily traveled freeway to protect — things that are not prevalent in the aforementioned communities.    San Carlos is currently staffed with the equipment and personnel (although they could use more of both) to address these unique requirements — but this equipment is missing from the Cal Fire proposal that was submitted to the  City of San Carlos. … Click Here to Continue Reading

San Carlos Police Officers Association Gives Official “Thumbs Down” to Outsourcing.

Press Release

In a press release issued this morning, the San Carlos Police Officers Association gave a resounding thumbs-down to the proposal that was submitted by the City Manager of San Carlos that recommends outsourcing the police service in San Carlos to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.  The San Carlos POA has thoroughly reviewed the proposal that was submitted by the Sheriff’s Department before issuing this press release.  To download a copy of this release, click here:  San Carlos POA Press Release, or see the full content of the press release at the bottom of this post.

A Refreshing Perspective.

Now, before everyone jumps on the POA’s position as being self-serving, it’s important to note that these officers are turning down a significant raise in pay and possibly upward career mobility that working for the Sheriff’s Department would provide.  When was the last time you saw a professional athlete turn down more pay and more opportunity to stay with their current team?   Hmmm.

Here’s the press release in its entirety

********FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE********

From San Carlos Police Officers Association

March 19, 2010

San Carlos Police Officers Association Denounces Proposed “Outsourcing” Deal With San Mateo County Sheriff

At the request of San Carlos City Manager Mark Weiss, the San Mateo County Sheriff has submitted a proposal to take over policing services in San Carlos.  It is posted on the City of San Carlos website.  As you read into it, you can see they are proposing to save the city 3.5 million dollars by cutting the police services by almost half.  The proposal assigns a total of 14 deputies to the City of San Carlos to replace the current 30 officers San Carlos now uses to police the city.  At the same time the Sheriff claims that police services will not be reduced.  How can anyone even believe that for a minute?

The bottom line upfront is one of the highest paid city management teams in San Mateo County has failed to do their jobs and now they want a do over, at the expense of the citizens and the dedicated employees of the San Carlos Police Department.

The San Carlos Police Department has endured budget cuts over the last 10 years that has brought it to its current staffing level of 30, down from 38.  San Carlos Police Chief Greg Rothaus was recently asked to propose 10% and 20% cuts for the upcoming budget.  The Chief proposed these cuts but also stated that reducing the level of staffing below 25 officers becomes “draconian” and the department could not function.  With the current staffing of 30 personnel, the San Carlos Police Department has 1.1 officers per capita, less than half of the national average of 2.4.  In a recent report to the city Council “The Dashboard”, Chief Rothaus compared San Carlos against four benchmark cities of comparable size; Belmont, Foster City, Burlingame and Los Gatos.  The report, available at the San Carlos Police website, showed that San Carlos Police, although lower in officers per capita and budget then the benchmark cities, outperformed them in property crime clearance rates, burglary clearance rates, and violent crime clearance rates. … Click Here to Continue Reading

If Outsourcing is “The Right Path” for San Carlos, Why Stop at Public Safety?

“A Paradigm Shift”

In last week’s press release in which he formally unveiled his preference to outsource the Police, Fire, and Park Maintenance services, San Carlos City Manager Mark Weiss spoke of a need to change the way we provide services in the future:

“What I am proposing in this year’s budget is a paradigm shift in how we view City services in San Carlos.  Rather than continue to attempt to provide the full range of City services mostly in-house, I believe it is time to accelerate the use of contract services in several areas in an effort to improve efficiency and take advantage of economies of scale, while embracing a regional service delivery model.”

There has been quite a bit of discussion on this site already about two of the proposals that are on the table right now. But setting aside the specifics of these proposals for a moment, and focusing instead on the general concept behind this paradigm shift, the question begs to be asked:

Why Not Other Departments?

If you take a quick look at how the City of San Carlos is organized and which services the City currently provides in-house, you start to see that there are a number of other services that could also be potentially handled by an outside agency.  San Mateo County already has a Building Department, a Planning Department,  and probably a Housing Department — Emerald Hills, and other communities in the County utilize these resources already.  The County also has the infrastructure to handle Administration and Payroll, and I would imagine that their benefits package is more cost-effective simply due to the economies of scale.  And the list goes on…

Now before you fire up the hate mail, understand that I have the utmost respect for the professionals that currently serve these roles in San Carlos (just as I do our Police and Fire Departments.)  I call on them quite often for information and clarification on building codes,  or an update on what’s happening on Wheeler Plaza, etc..    I have spoken with several council members who refer to this group as “the brains behind the operation”, and I totally concur.  I’m not suggesting for a nanosecond that we remove a single one of them.

But in the spirit of “the same or better service” mantra that’s being repeated regarding the Fire and Police proposals on the table, couldn’t the same “paradigm shift” be applied to other departments achieve additional cost savings to the City of San Carlos?

Of Course Not.

There are probably a hundred reasons one could envision for not doing this — and the top of the list would be that  wouldn’t want to risk losing the Al Savay’s, or Mark Sawicki’s, or Deborah Nelson’s or, Chris Valley’s that we have already…although one could apply the same argument that working for a larger organization provides more career opportunities — you know, the same carrot that we’re dangling in front of our police force right now.  But then shouldn’t we have the same concern about losing our Police Commanders, Detectives,  Fire Captains, and Engineers?

Is it really fair to apply this “paradigm shift” to only a select few departments in the City of San Carlos?  Sure, public safety accounts for about 57% of our current budget.  But what about the other 43%?   With such dramatic savings being touted by outsourcing Fire and Police, couldn’t some additional savings be achieved by applying this principle across the board?

Maybe that way, we could bring back a live receptionist at City Hall.  Or staff an additional officer during our peak hours.  Or put a fourth firefighter on our rigs?

What Does it Say if We Don’t?

Perhaps there are no savings to be gained by further outsourcing.  But if we proceed down our current path of just outsourcing Public Safety, what does that say about our value system?  Is it right that we apply a different yardstick to one department, and not another?   What keeps coming back to me are the following two thoughts:

1. Either our City Manager views Public Safety as a commodity, even though he states otherwise.  Or,
2. If we can’t apply the same model across the board, maybe outsourcing isn’t the right solution after all.

What are your thoughts?