Minutes - 20080612 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Laura Blackmon made reference to Emergency Services and the Sheriff's Department and said that historically there is overtime. Emergency Services Director Frank Montes de Oca said that there are three units that he staffs full-time, 24 hours a day, and there is a fourth one that is staffed from 9-9. There are also five units that are initial or immediate response vehicles that are staffed 24 hours a day. He is looking at some different staffing matrices to see if there can be some cuts. Laura Blackmon said that the Sheriff's Department is very similar in trying to have enough coverage. Commissioner Nelson said that he has a hard time with why some of these other departments would have to have overtime as opposed to somebody taking comp time. For example, Human Rights and Relations could take comp time if they have to work weekends instead of overtime. Laura Blackmon said that for the most part, departments are trying to do as much comp time as possible. With a small department that is trying to handle the public coming in, they are not able to do as much comp time to cover everything. Human Rights and Relations Director Shoshannah Smith said that her department uses comp time entirely for bi-lingual employees. She only has two and one is exempt. The non- exempt employee works nights and weekends and she is also needed during the 40-hour work week. Chair Jacobs said that there is still money in the budget for vacant positions. He said that the County is setting aside money in the budget for positions that it has not filled, but it is also paying overtime and temporary time. It seems like this could all be streamlined, and if there are positions that are not going to be filled anytime soon, and temps are being used for overtime, there should not be money set aside for the position for the entire fiscal year. Frank Montes de Oca said that some of the positions were frozen last year because of financial issues. Chair Jacobs gave an example of telecommunicators, which are chronically not filled. The department is using temporary and overtime, but there are two vacant positions at$45,000 and $49,000. It seems that this should roll into temporary and overtime. Laura Blackmon said that the policy does not allow using line items for other expenditures. The County budgets salaries at 96% so that the excess is absorbed. Commissioner Gordon made reference to OPT, which has one full-time and one half- time position for drivers. OPT has been using retirees to drive, so it is more flexible and benefits are not needed. OPT had 1.5 FTE vacancies and recommended that it be eliminated and reinstated for a flexible temporary pool. Now that the ridership is increasing, this arrangement might affect service in an adverse way. She wants to consider this. Donna Coffey said that there is funding for the 1.5 positions, and what got reduced was the temporary money. Commissioner Gordon asked what should be done about this— let OPT hire the 1.5 positions, or allow them to fill it with temporary staff. Laura Blackmon suggested deleting the positions and increasing temporary to allow more flexibility. The Sheriff has done this before and this could also be done for OPT—delete the 1.5 positions and move the money to temporary. Commissioner Gordon said that she thinks this is what OPT wants. There is no budgetary impact. Commissioner Carey suggested flagging those two categories so that the Board knows that it did that for a specific reason. Commissioner Carey made reference to two positions at the top of the Vacant Positions list that have been vacant since 2006. He asked if those funds were in the budget. Donna Coffey said that these are the 1.5 positions for OPT.