FW: Budget ideas - ResponseMyrt,
Here are my responses.
Terry Mitton SPHR
Director of Human Resources
The City of Kalispell
P.O. Box 1997
Kalispell, MT 59901
(406) 758-7757 Fax 758 - 7847
tmitton@kalispell.com <mailto:7758tmitton@kalispell.com>
From: Myrt Webb [mailto:mwebb@kalispell.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 8:18 AM
To: Amy Robertson; 'Terry Mitton'
Subject: FW: Budget ideas
I need your input on the following questions from CM Kluesner.
From: Tim Kluesner [mailto:twkluesner@centurytel.net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 11:28 PM
To: Myrt Webb
Subject: Budget ideas
Hi Myrt
Since we will be talking budget this coming Monday, I have some ideas
for reduction I intend to ask. I thought I would give them to you today
so that some answers could be prepared. Can you work on the following
for me since they have some support among council members.
1. What would be the cost savings by reducing all non-union
employees salaries by 5% and 7%. This includes dept heads and council
members.
1. Amy can provide the dollar numbers.
2. From a business sense this is a very poor practice for a
couple of reasons:
1. It sends a message that reinforces being a Union
worker is the only way to go making future negotiations tougher for the
City.
2. Non-Union workers would consider this a
discriminatory act, albeit it’s actually not illegal.
3. By reducing wages of this small group, many of
the supervisors and those employees with higher education and job skills
could be making less than their employees (pay compression or
inversion). It could also be considered rewarding employees with less
skills or performance.
2. What would be the cost savings by going to a 35 hour work week
by all hourly employees? What conflict does this cause with union
employees.
1. Amy can provide the dollar numbers.
2. Making this change unilaterally to Union employee work
hours is a violation of NLRB Collective Bargaining as it is change in
wage &/or working conditions which is considered a mandatory subject of
bargaining. To seek this type of action will literally require us to
request opening up each of the three respective union contracts for
negotiations or face grievances, with a guarantee of the City losing in
an arbitration and potential costly penalties.. (Note: Both Fire and
AFSCME contracts end June 30, 2008 with negotiations to begin this
Spring).
1. Opening any contract means all things are open
to negotiations, which can take a long time to resolve, well beyond the
timeframe we are needing. Typically, asking for concessions on one end
will lead to having to give something on the other end.
3. Union employees, if such a thing was imposed, who would
have their hours reduced could argue they have the right to “bump” lower
seniority Union employees with full-time positions in other departments
if they had the “minimum skills” for the position. This could now
affect departments not in the General Fund, such as Public Works
creating training issues and reduced performance.
4. Reducing hours for non-union employees could lead to pay
compression or inversion with the associated problems.
5. “Full-time” employees who would now work reduced hours
(less than 40 hour week) would have to be considered “part-time”
employees by Montana Wage and Hour definition. This will result in
employees accruing less vacation, sick leave and retirement benefit
credits. The City currently requires those employees working
“part-time” to also contribute higher dollars to the city’s health
insurance, the hardest hit will be employees on the family plans.
6. Typically employees, especially those with good work
records and higher qualifications, will begin seeking other employment.
The City will lose some of the most valuable and productive employees,
leaving the rest to “pick up the slack.” Another concern would be
those employees who do leave may have large accrued vacation and sick
leave hours which equates to thousands of dollars and would require an
immediate payout, further affecting our budget woes.
3. Immediately Eliminating ALL consultant contracts. Please give
us a list of all consultant contracts and their amounts.
1. I am aware of no consultant contracts within the General
Fund.
4. Does any airport money or manager salary come from the general
fund? If so, how much?
1. I don’t know the answer to this question. Not in my
area of expertise.
5. Can we suspend or sunset any TIFF districts? If you look at the
taxes going into the TIFF districts and not the general fund we would
not be in this financial position. These funds are taking tax dollars
we desperately need right now.
1. I don’t know the answer to this question. Not in my
area of expertise.
6. Can we look at borrowing from the TIFF funds? This has been
asked in the past with the answer that if would be possible but not a
task the finance department wanted to take on. We need staff to prepare
a plan to use money from these funds in the general fund. There should
be no reason we can’t borrow this money at 0%
1. I don’t know the answer to this question. Not in my
area of expertise.
7. Eliminate the 4% wage increase that that is in the current
budget. That is if it took effect. In the past I believe council has
voted on wage increases however Jim Patrick never brought this forward
to council. Have you been able to find our how this was passed by
council and if it went into effect?
1. The increase I believe he is referring to is a COLA only
to the “Salary Ordinance Pay Ranges Plan” for non-union personnel. It
does not specifically equate automatically to a pay increase for anyone,
only the ranges for each specific position. Because of the recognized
budget issues it was felt by staff and the City Manager that it was not
a good thing to bring before the Council.
2. The City Personnel Policy Manual that was adopted by the
Council in 2003 states there is to be “a competitive adjustment” each
year based on the CPI. (Note: Barring some unusual situations, the City
of Kalispell’s current wages for all employees are still the lowest of
all Class 1 cities in the state).
3. The 4% increase he is referring to was received by
non-union personnel to eliminate the issue of pay compression/inversions
with the Union employees, who’s raises are outlined in each respective
contract. Each Union contract is approved by the Council.
Thanks Myrt for your help. I look forward to hearing the answers.
Tim Kluesner