Comments: November 3, 2009 thru November 8, 2009
Employee or
Community
Member		 Name
(optional) 		 Email
(optional) 		 Suggestion: Date Time
Employee     Police Department - Discontinue hiring police lieutenants. Water Department - Utility Services employees should be working shifts to reduce need for stand-by and overtime pay. (This would also reduce the cost of having to feed employees held over.)  02-Nov-09 1:05 PM
Community Member     To reduce fuel consumption and wear and tear on vehicles, City employees that are on-call, should not drive city assigned vehicles to their homes. Some employees live in Queen Creek, Surprise,Peoria, or other outlying communities.  03-Nov-09 8:17 AM
Employee     In Community Development/Redevelopment, there are two positions, Principal Planner and Planner II where these duties can be incorporated into the Affordable Housing Supervisor and Affordable Hsg. Specialist positions. The skill and expertise are similar and are redundant. The Affordable Housing positions are federally funded. This would assist the general funds with an estimated $200k. :) 03-Nov-09 10:30 AM
Employee     Please provide a comprehensive review of this past years feedback list. What comments from the last survey were initiated, which ones were not pursued or are not feasible. This will save a lot of staff time from having to make the same comments as last time. (The sooner the better) Thank you.  03-Nov-09 10:50 AM
Community Member     Restrict frivolous travel - If an employee has traveled to a conference or training, especially out-of state, for several years in a row, it is probably not necessary for him/her to attend again.  03-Nov-09 1:19 PM
Employee     Eliminate the Clean Air Challenge program -- Employees should be encouraged to use an alternative form of transportation because it improves our air quality and in some cases, provides physical activity (if they ride their bike or walk). They shouldn't have to be rewarded for going "green".  03-Nov-09 1:35 PM
Employee     City of Tempe employees should have to pay for their employee ID card after being issued three (3) in a one year time frame. Be responsible for your identification cards!  03-Nov-09 1:38 PM
Employee     Why do we have a Diversity Department? What do they do exactly? They get paid a lot of money and got a very expensive diversity certification...help me understand where the ROI is on that please. Diversity needs to be a component of the Human Resources Department.  03-Nov-09 2:07 PM
      Please look at the Bilingual pay program.  03-Nov-09 2:08 PM
     

All department manager perks; extra vacation time, car allowances, etc need to be eliminated. They get paid a high enough salary as it is.

03-Nov-09  2:10 PM
Employee Dawn Oliphant   I would like to see employees more active in recycling/reducing waste. The city gets paid so much money per pound for recyables right? So why has there not been more education/outreach to employees about the importance of work place recycling?  03-Nov-09 2:13 PM
Employee     Get rid of some Transportation Planners. There are way too many.  03-Nov-09 2:56 PM
Employee     Why doesn't the city work with a community service/volunteer group to clean up trash after the Mill Avenue Block party so the city does not have to pay overtime to Public Works employees? The Tempe City Court could be involved when they assign community service to defendants that the block party would be one of their assignments for hours? 03-Nov-09 4:18 PM
Employee     When your family budget is tight, you cut back on the "extras" and focus on the necessities. You know that you aren't permanently eliminating things deemed extra, but you do without until things improve. We as an organization need to do the same. In this light, all of the following should be postponed or suspended until things improve: all training including LDT, tuition reimbursement and car allowances. My gut says there are costs associated with flex schedules; they should be examined. I'm sure there are many more things that aren't essential, especially for the time being.  04-Nov-09 10:44 AM
      Because employee compensation if the largest budget item, it is obvious that it must be addressed. One way is to eliminate positions. Another method that is easy to implement and fair to everyone is a five percent ACROSS THE BOARD salary rollback for a set duration and with a plan in place to restore wages as the economy improves.  04-Nov-09 10:49 AM
      Reduce library hours to eliminate the need for part-time staff (11 a.m. to 8 p.m., for example). The same for the museum (T-Th and Sat. 10-2). Reduce the number of "professional" positions within both agencies. For example, instead of two librarians at a service desk, have one librarian and one library aide. The "professional" would handle things that the aide could not. Same for the museum-one curator working with aides and a head curator instead of a director. In addition, exhibit creation and installation could be contracted out on an as-needed basis.  04-Nov-09 10:55 AM
Employee     Examine duplication of effort between the library Connections program for boomers and activities at the Pyle and Cahill Centers. Our "senior" centers need to be transitioning to "active adult" centers in order to attract boomers as they age. Connections programming should be moved to and incorporated into the offerings at these existing centers. The Connections director was funded through grant money, but the grants have expired and now funding comes through the Friends of the Library. One could say the program does not cost the City anything, but it does draw Friends funding away from other library programs, especially those for children.  04-Nov-09 11:01 AM
Employee     1.When are the city council, mayor, and staff going to stop taking trips to San Antonio, Washington DC, Sedona, Tucson, etc.....??? How dare they spend like there is no tomorrow! Isn't that what got us into this mess in the first place?
2. When are the city council, mayor, and staff going to say 'no' to the union bosses? Yes, they are bought and paid for, but the price of corruption within our organization is costing the rest of us jobs! Police and fire have become a protected class of citizens. It's time to take a look at the excesses in government and start slashing jobs, overtime, and unnecessary travel.  		04-Nov-09 11:51 AM
CommunityMember     Charge room rental at Tempe Art Center for all performing and support organizations, including jazz series and Friends group. 04-Nov-09 12:36 PM Employee Eliminate car allowances until if/when financial times are better.  04-Nov-09 1:09 PM
      The city needs to review current revenue levels and compare them with the last time the revenue was approximately the same i.e. If the current revenue is 1 million dollars. Then go back to the last time it was about the same and review what parts of the budget has increased. The next step is to cut the areas of the budget that are not critical. DO NOT cut police or fire unless it truley has grown faster than the need. CUT free bus ride frequency or all together or charge for the service. Elininate all perks that are above and beyond i.e. car and cell phone alloences. 110% solution 100% of people take a 10% cut in pay/benefits. Random drug test all employees in the next month and lay off the employees who fail the drug test. Combine job titles i.e. Sanitation worker/Code enforcement reduce the total number of both groups by 1/2 of the total amount of code enforcers. Then take 50% of the total savings of the elimination to offer OT, pay increase, new sanitation staff or some combination of all three.    
CommunityMember     Where is all the red light and fixed speed camera revenue? Implement a maximum amount of fuel per city owner vehicle. Then let employees know after 20 gallons of fuel per month the city will not pay. This would incentivize people to economize the same way they would if they were paying for the gas themselves. Implement a 5 minute max idle time for vehicles. Turn the car off if you are going to be sitting for more than 5 minutes. bench mark the valley pay scale for similar jobs and match all pay to 5% bellow the mid/avg level for each similar job. I am sure Tempe pays higher than most cities for the same job. The special election we just had should have included a bond measure to buy solar for all city owned properties. That would be a long term investment to lower the cities electricity budget. Lower/Raise the temperature 5%  04-Nov-09 4:03 PM
      Eliminate the following programs: Mounted horse unit - Tuition reimbursement - Car allowances. Reduce the following programs: Diversity Department - Bilingual pay.  04-Nov-09 4:07 PM
CommunityMember     Charge $100 for each vendor who submits a proposal to Purchasing.  04-Nov-09 4:08 PM
CommunityMember     Save energy costs by reducing street lights. Unscrew the bulbs as it's too bright in Tempe. Revenue Idea: wireless/cellular antennas in City Parks. Eliminate all OT. Take all M-F positions and make them Mon-Thur 9 hour days instead of 8. Savings of 4 hours per employee and can make office space dark on 1 extra day saving on electricity.  04-Nov-09 4:15 PM
Employee     1. Cancel the call center.
2. Issue blackberries only to city manager, assistant manager, department managers and deputies.
3. Eliminate car allowances for department managers.
4. Reinstate the budget cuts that were proposed last fiscal year and were subsequently taken off the table.
5. Outsource custodial with contracts that stipulate in detail the tasks and quality of work that are to be performed; build in periodic reviews to ensure that the work is being done according to the stipulations of the contract.
6. Eliminate programs and services that duplicate those being offered by the private sector or other non-profits; use a percentage of the monies saved to provide financial support to members of the community who cannot afford those services.  		04-Nov-09 4:59 PM
Employee     Since the largest part of the city's expenditures is staff and it has been acknowledged that staff will have to be looked at really hard, I think it only makes sense to take a really hard look at sales tax. The largest portion of the city's revenue comes from local sales tax. The easiest way to cut expenditures is to cut the cost of employees, likewise, the easiest way to increase revenue is to increase the local sales tax. I know there is a lot more to raising the tax rate then just implementing it, but it seems like the idea has been dismissed without consideration. One tenth of a percent increase would potentially provide 5-6 million in revenue. The average person wouldn't notice the effect of a one or two tenth percentage increase.  04-Nov-09 5:49 PM
Employee     Since all forms of pay increases have been frozen (probationary, promotional, steps, market), productivity pay for Police and Fire should be frozen as well. If that can't happen due to MOU provisions, there are other ways to address the cost of that benefit. Ex., the Healthcare Team could consider increasing all Police and Fire employees' healthcare contributions by the annual cost of their aggregate productivity pay. Or, the Target Reductions team could add that dollar amount to the financial target for the Police and Fire Departments. 05-Nov-09 9:57 AM
Employee     Set a reduction target for the overall City expenditures on electricity and fuel. Hold each department responsible for meeting that reduction within their own cost centers. We have the data to show their current usage as a baseline, even though the budget does not currently reside at the cost center level.  05-Nov-09 10:04 AM
CommunityMember     Create a reserve patrol division for PD similar to Phoenix or Mesa. Initially it may cost a little money to process interested applicants and to train them, but there could be significant long term savings if it lowers the number of officers that need to be hired in the future.  05-Nov-09 1:04 PM
CommunityMember     Eliminate fee assistance for recreation programs. There are low-cost or no-cost options at places like Escalante Community Center or North Tempe Multi-gen center.  05-Nov-09 1:17 PM
CommunityMember     When a position is vacated and determined it needs to be filled, hire a temporary employee instead of a regular employee and save the cost of benefits.   05-Nov-09 1:21 PM
      Tempe should revisit the number of PIOs we have for the entire city. I believe we're up to at least 10 full-time employees. How does that compare to other cities or organizations similar in size? While other departments were cutting staff, it looks like Community Relations group by ten folds.  06-Nov-09 10:14 AM
Employee     Eliminate the funds used to offset the cost for the TPDC lunch program. Let all employees participating pay the necessary dollar amount to cover the cost of the lunch each month.  06-Nov-09 11:22 AM
      Employee Look at reducing the number of city issued BlackBerry's.  06-Nov-09 11:37 AM
Employee Diana   Scottsdale does not put fluoride in their treated water, because they determined fiscally they were spending more money on fluoridating landscape materials and bathing/toilet water than was worth the cost. Since a large consumer of our water is Dasani, who removes the fluoride in their RO process, maybe we should consider cutting the cost of our water treatment and not adding fluoride. This is a decreased service to residents, who would have to pay to treat their teeth, but maybe it could be added back in when funding is available. PS. I know water is an enterprise fund, but saving money is saving money...right :-)  06-Nov-09 3:38 PM
Employee Diana   Initiate conversations to strategize with ASU and TCVB to bring more events back to ASU, all the facilities they have could be programmed for events that generate tourism. Conventions, conferences, concerts, etc. Market Tempe as more accessible than other locations not on light rail, and centrally located to hotels, restaurants, bars and other amenities most events are looking for.  06-Nov-09 3:40 PM
Employee     Perhaps the city should look at how many employees have cell phones and blackberries that are paid for with city monies.  06-Nov-09 4:39 PM
Employee     Eliminate end-of-the-year payouts for the personal day, sick time and excess vacation. 08-Nov-09  8:20 AM
CommunityMember     When Community Relations reverts to an office, reclassify the Communications & Media Relations Director to a PIO. Put the Channel 11 employees and the graphic designers under the office director. 08-Nov-09 8:22 AM