Finance chief makes recommendations for current-year changes

General Fund revenues are still coming in, Water Operations revenues are lower as customers conserve during the drought, and two formerly frozen jobs need to be revived and a third needs to be modified, Finance Director Karin Schnaider will tell the City Council on Tuesday night.

Schnaider will make those recommendations when she gives the Council the latest all-funds Budget to Actual Reports for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2014, and her recommendation for amending the 2014-15 budget as of its second quarter.

Such modifications are expected as city employees continue monitoring the budget. “Even with the proposed amendments, there are no material changes to any fund,” Schnaider wrote in a Feb. 9 report to City Manager Brad Kilger.

Nor would this be the last look at the current budget. The Council’s next comprehensive review will take place after the fiscal year’s third quarter.

Schnaider is recommending the city immediately hire a Public Works Department assistant director, as well as a senior planner for the Community Development Department.

Also in the Community Development Department, she is recommending the senior administrative clerk be changed to administrative secretary.

“These positions are an outgrowth of the organizational scan staff has been conducting, and these positions will address the most critical staffing shortages the city is currently facing,” Schnaider wrote.

The three positions would be added to General Fund personnel in the Fiscal Year 2014-15 budget. In the Fiscal Year 2015-17 budget being drafted, the assistant Public Works director would be considered part of the cost allocation similar to the Public Works director, she wrote.

The senior planner would be partially offset by the processing of planning permits and fees, and changing the senior administrative clerk to administrative secretary would save the city some money, Schnaider wrote.

She wrote that the Public Works Department is highly regulated, and its functions are diverse.

“They coordinate most capital projects within the city, answer to several county, state and federal regulations and have a wide breadth of responsibility pertaining to the citizens’ health and safety needs,” she wrote.

After passage of Measure C, the penny sales tax increase, the department will be overseeing new revenue and have more regulatory, maintenance and improvement projects, Schnaider wrote.

The need for someone to help with day-to-day project and division oversight is critical, she wrote. That position was frozen in Fiscal Year 2011-12.

The Community Development Department needs a senior planner after staffing reductions have made it difficult to maintain day-to-day services and for advanced planning, Schnaider wrote.

Among those duties are preparing revisions to the zoning ordinance to reflect state and federal requirements; grant preparation; managing projects involving community planning and development; participating in state and regional regulatory boards and agencies that oversee transportation; air quality and planning initiatives; and managing applications for Community Development Block Grants.

In addition, that person would improve the department’s customer service, answer questions and deal with economic development matters, Schnaider wrote. This was another job frozen during recent cutbacks caused by the recession.

Schnaider wrote that changing the senior administrative clerk position to that of administrative secretary would better meet the Community Development Department’s needs while allocating resources more effectively.

Higher-level administrative tasks, such as compiling commission packets and participating in governmental meetings, have been assigned to the management analyst, she wrote.

“This department is unique in that it staffs several commissions that all meet regularly and have a significant workload,” she wrote, listing the Planning Commission, the Historic Preservation Review Commission and the Community Sustainability Commission.

No one would be displaced by the change, because the senior administrative clerk position is currently vacant, Schnaider wrote.

She wrote that there is enough money to support the budget amendments, a total of $146,000 in Fiscal Year 2014-2015, $230,000 in Fiscal Year 2015-16 and $153,000 in Fiscal Year 2016-17 for the three positions and $47,000 for other amendments in 2014-15.

She wrote that by Dec. 31, 2014, the General Fund department had spent about 48 percent of the operating budget, and total revenue collections had reached 45 percent of the same budget.

Those revenues, from various property taxes, franchise fees and business licenses, come in at different times of the year.

The Water Operations fund has been supplemented through the drought surcharge the Council approved as a stabilization measure while residents and business operators cut back in compliance with governmental requests and mandates.

The new rates are expected to continue through October 2015, Schnaider wrote, and city employees will continue monitoring both revenues and expenditures in preparation of additional detailed reports of third- and fourth-quarter activity.

The Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in a closed session to discuss labor, legal and personnel matters. The regular meeting will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.