The Observation Deck

Don posted some great ideas for Cost Savings in the Park thread.

But I really wanted us to throw out some other ideas. I think we should let our creativity run wild here. Of course some of them won't work. Some I'm sure our administration has considered and found unworkable for whatever reason. But, I bet we can come up with some they haven't consdiered and some that may be workable.

I'm assuming that Mayor George has already implemented every cost saving idea he has. So, Councilman Fitzgerald and Demro, what are some of your ideas? You both have been champions of working the cost side of the budget instead of raising taxes - which seems to be Mayor George's solution. What would you do to save money. Let's have some real concrete ideas instead of just zero based budgeting (Councilman's Fitzgerald's idea - which is of course what we should be doing).

Citizens and Candidates - Let's hear your ideas

The last finance director told me that each reduction in the minimum staffing level at the fire department would save $250,000 per year. Why not reduce the minimum staffing level by 4 and save (if the numbers were correct) $1 million dollars per year?

I would gladly take my garbage to the curb if it would save enough money to make an impact. We already take the reccycling out to the curb...why not the rest and save some money?

Rhonda

I don't want to short change the firemen/EMS when we need them. I'm curious what the cost would be if we replaced full time firement with Part-time firemen without overtime and benefits - do it through attrition and let the full time openings be available first to the part timers. It is what the other cities are doing.

Bill have they solved the OT problem with the fire dept. yet? What are we spending in Firemen OT?

Lynn Farris wrote:I don't want to short change the firemen/EMS when we need them. I'm curious what the cost would be if we replaced full time firemen with Part-time firemen without overtime and benefits - do it through attrition and let the full time openings be available first to the part timers. It is what the other cities are doing.

Bill have they solved the OT problem with the fire dept. yet? What are we spending in Firemen OT?

Reducing the minimum staffing level would mean that when 2 firefighters call in sick you would not be required to call in two replacements on OT. No one would lose their job.

As I recall there are 30 Firefighters, EMS on each shift. Due to Kelly Days, sick time, family medical leave time, vacation time, military leave time, union leave, workers comp time, light duty time etc, on a typical day only 22 or so are available for work. I forget all the details but if the minimum staffing levels are 22 and two more firefighters call in sick then two firefighters must be called in to replace them. Those called in are paid OT regardless of how many hours they have worked during the pay period. If the minimum level was 20 then there would be no overtime.

I noticed on the last budget numbers that there was a decline in the use of sick time but an increase in family medical leave and workers comp leave that increase total non worked hours to record levels.

I guess I look at it this way: If I had a business where on a typical day 33% of my workforce was absent for one reason or another I would wonder what is going on. A similar situation exists in the police department where because of all the various leave time only 45 or so officers are available for duty on any particular day. If you want to add 30 officers to street patrol you will have to hire 60. Is that anyway to run a railroad? The info on the police came from a council candidate.

The last time I asked for ot information I was told that it was a very complicated issue. I suppose it would be nice to know the total overtime costs for the fire department and police department. I didn't press for the information because:

1. I don't know that me supplying the info to the general public would have any affect on people's thinking and

2. Such requests do take up valuable time from City servants; I am sure they have better things to do that respond to requests from a gadfly like me!

Of course if I was a smart ass I would ask: If the employee knows whether or not he is paid overtime why doesn't the City? But I am not going to ask.

The last finance director told me OT was about $1 million a year including the cost of benefits.

The law is clear. OT must be paid when an employee actually works more than 40 hours in a week. If an employee takes Monday off sick, then works Tuesday through Saturday - they can be paid for 48 hours - but no OT. If they actually work 6 days for 8 hours then they must be paid.

If I understand you correctly Bill, we are paying overtime when we are not required by law to do so? Why? Is this part of the union contract?

I'm sure we can't reduce all overtime, but if we reduced it by 50% as a goal that would generate a savings of approximately 1/2 million.

Having more part time employees will solve the problems.

Obviously so would ignoring the minimum staffing levels.

I'm very curious about these minimum staffing levels. How were they developed? Is this a fire industry standard - so many firemen on call for X about of residents, X about of square footage, X amount of buildings? Is this something we have established in Lakewood? Would we be putting lives at risk to go under these minimums? How do other cities handle this?

Contract a cement company to provide sidewalk and apron services in bulk. Each week they pick out a street and relay as many feet as they can. The savings realized from not needing to advertise will be passed on to the property owners in the form of a significant discount from the average cost of such a job. I'd have to imagine that a good amount of a contractors overhead is time spent on quoting and capital spent on marketing. Give them a city contract and they could focus just on their craft. The city could assist by allowing the property owner to finance this repair with a 0% interest loan repaid through their property tax bill.

May already exist but thought it was a reasonable way to fix up the city and keep a local business awfully busy. Maybe other home maintenance issues could be included as well such as tree trimming, roofing and exterior painting. I think there is something very aesthetically pleasing about driving down Belle for instance from Detroit to Lake. All of the aprons and sidewalks were clearly done at the same time. Always been curious how that happened.

It happened because all the driveway aprons and curbs were replaced at the same time by a contrator hired as part of the street repair deal.

Lynn Farris wrote: If I understand you correctly Bill, we are paying overtime when we are not required by law to do so? Why? Is this part of the union contract?

I was told that a firefighter gets paid overtime if he is called into work on a day that was not on his schedule even if he was not scheduled for the previous week. For example: I am scheduled to work 3 days over the next 14 days but I am called in on day 10. I get paid overtime. If I called in sick on all of my 3 scheduled days I still get the ot.

If I had a suspicious mind I would say that the firefighters agreed to 2% raises in exchange for a blind eye to the conversion of sick time into overtime. The "Leave/Overtime schedule showed 15,587 hours in 2004 and 26,647 in 2006, a 55% increase over a two year period.

As I remember minimum staffing levels are part of the union contract. but I am not sure. Some cities have different staffing levels.

Keep in mind that the firefighters have their own lobbyists in Columbus and Washington DC. Their job is to have legislation past that enshrines in law the pay and benefits of firefighters.

I suppose one cost cutting measure to consider would be for city governments to pool their money and hire their own lobbyists. The Cities could also pool their money to bribe lawmakers so that they would be less likely to pass rules and regulations that create unfunded burdens on local governments.

The legislative process has become a finely tuned criminal enterprise. While we might wish it weren't so, so it is.