Tempe Budget Employee Forum
Nov. 3, 2009, at 10 a.m.
Vihel Center

The following is a recap of questions asked and answers given during the first of three employee forums regarding the projected 2010-11 city budget deficit. All answers were provided by City Manager Charlie Meyer unless otherwise noted.

Q1: Is dedicating 56 percent of the general fund for public safety (Police and Fire) consistent with what other cities do?
A: Yes, typically cities spend about 50 percent or more of their general fund budget on public safety.

Q2: What impact will organizational consolidation have on Tempe? Will it result in a significant savings?
A: The City Manager’s Results Team recently floated an early concept about organizational consolidation in order to solicit input and prompt discussions. The idea was floated to department managers, to the Six-Sided Partnership and in one of my recent Weekly messages. While the decision is not made, we have contemplated reducing from 14 departments to seven. The seven departments do not include the areas whose managers report directly to Council: the Court, the City Attorney’s Office and the City Clerk’s Office. There are personnel ramifications to such a decision, particularly when it comes to department managers and deputies. The idea is to streamline our operations and make things work better. Doing this would, I believe, result in improved communication and a much closer link when communicating amongst ourselves about delivering services. Making this change would require approval of the City Council, since city departments are detailed in the City Code. If organizational consolidation resulted in the elimination of, say, 10 upper-management level positions, the savings could be around $2 million. But, at this point, we are not looking to attach a number to this concept. This move would set up the leadership structure of the city for the next 10 to 20 years. We want to get lean and we want to do it in a way that is smart rather than foolish.

Q3: What do you expect the tone of the upcoming two community forums will be? What will you tell residents?
A: The presentation of 2010-11 budget information is the same. We may see more participation at the later community forums, in early January, when we are looking at a specific proposed plan for dealing with the budget. We are attempting to get all our stakeholders involved early in the process. We want to communicate with our residents in the right way and in a way that makes the possible changes relevant to them.

Q4: Will Tempe offer another voluntary separation program for its employees in hopes to get at-will or other employees to volunteer to leave?
A: The package we offered in 2009-10 was an incentive to get people to voluntarily separate. It was made available in the same way to everyone. It was a good program that had the desired effect and will result in savings to the city. However, it was expensive. The Arizona State Retirement System sent us a $4 million bill for their costs related to our package, even though we had been told for months they had no estimate of possible costs. But we had to move forward with our plan. At-will employees whose positions may be eliminated do not necessarily have rights to bump others. There is a provision in the City Code that allows for severance agreements (for up to six months of salary) for at-will employees. The answer to the question is maybe. We will look at it. The questions are can we afford it and what will the results be.

Q5: Is revenue projected to increase?
A: For the 2009-10 budget, Financial Services staff assumed zero percent growth in sales tax revenue. Currently, we are experiencing negative sales tax numbers, so in order to meet our 09-10 projections, we need to climb from negative numbers to zero. Growth in 2010-11 is projected at three percent, and six percent in the fiscal years thereafter. If those numbers are not realized, we could have a larger deficit.

Q6: Explain the structure of the results teams.
A: We are starting six to eight weeks earlier this time than we did for the 2009-10 budget. We were rushed last year because of how quickly the problem appeared; this time we have a bit more room to really examine some other solutions. Any duplication or overlap in the responsibilities of results teams is expected and it’s okay. The teams are making recommendations to Financial Services, and then to department managers. The departments are not bound to make these changes, but they are expected to give serious consideration to the results team recommendations. A handful of department heads are involved in the results teams, but for the most part, department heads will be putting their budgets together with the input of the results teams.

Q7: If we outsource some services, how will we ensure continued quality of services?
A: Quality assurance can be worked into any contracts for outsourced services. Administering a contract takes a different style of management than managing city employees. It would be an adjustment for the city and the departments involved. This wouldn’t be the right step for every city service. Tempe employees take pride in what they do. The end goal is serving the community at a high level and more effectively.

Q8: A couple years ago, the Police Department hired new staff members for the expected increase in downtown Tempe residents. That increase in residents did not happen. How can we justify not going back to staffing levels that existed before the changes that were made due to anticipated growth?
Answer from Charlie Meyer: Departmental staffing throughout the city has grown over the last 10 years. Things like the Tempe Center for the Arts and Transit resulted in growth. Eighty percent of the growth was in public safety. Talking about cutting public safety is difficult, but there can be smart reductions to these services that do not compromise quality.

 Answer from Police Chief Tom Ryff: The reorganization of the Police Department a couple of years ago was because of growth but also because of things such as unfunded mandates from Homeland Security. Many non-sworn positions were added, including technical support functions like criminal intelligence staff members who assist our officers with the information they need to anticipate and address crime. The Police Department never finished adding all the new staff positions that were on the table during the approved reorganization. We have contracted out some services such as light rail security, and I have called for a meeting of East Valley police chiefs to look at establishing a joint SWAT team to economize the provision of that function. The Police Department made significant cuts in 2009-10, including $1 million in staff cuts. We are in the process of figuring out what we can cut for 2010-11 while maintaining services.

Answer from Fire Chief Cliff Jones: The Fire Department has done what I call “front-loading” of cost savings over 25 years in order to become a lean and effective department. We have the automatic aid system in the region, which is unique nationally. Under that model, other cities in the Valley help us respond to our calls – and Tempe does the same for them. Currently, because of the added value that the automatic aid system gives us, Tempe has six fire stations. But experts have told us that a city our size would need 10 fire stations, if we were without the automatic aid system. We combined the regional fire training facility about 15 years ago. We contracted out our dispatching function 25 years ago.