Updated 3/13/11
Orange City Council met for a budget study session before the March 8, 2011 council meeting. This meeting, which isn't televised or taped, gives a great deal of insight into what to expect in the upcoming budget process. Look for:
- Consultants!
- Cuts that don't make sense
- Pressure to get rid of public employees
First thing to notice at the meeting is that both Denis Bilodeau and Jon Dumitru were absent for the study session. Mayor Pro-Tem Tita Smith commented on their absence, and her comments made it sound like both Bilodeau and Dumitru did not discuss missing the meeting with the rest of Council and the absences were a surprise. (Update: The City Manager was informed that the meeting interfered with both Bilodeau's and Dumitru's work schedules and a request was made to cancel or reschedule the meeting. The policy on notifying Council members of anticipated absences isn't known to the public.) Both Bilodeau and Dumitru work for Orange County, which can be assistive of employees serving on city councils and other public functions. Bilodeau is Supervisor Shawn Nelson's chief of staff. Dumitru works in the command center coordinating fire fighting and emergency activities. Dumitru is also a union member of Orange County Employees Association (OCEA) which represents many County employees.
Consultants!
Bottom line: If there is money for consultants, then we need to find a way to not use that money for consultants and avoid more cuts.
There is a budget gap of about $10 million which can be bridged by strategic use of reserves, trimming hours and asking bargaining units to not take raises this cycle. Council doesn't think that department heads can handle this and wants to bring in consultants to do a study and make recommendations. In 1999, a similar project took 9 months and cost $150,000, and the recommendations were rejected. The rejected recommendations were to hire additional staff at a cost of about $500,000.
Mayor Pro-Tem Smith spoke out against using consultants, pointing out they are costly and don't know the community as well as the department heads do. Smith feels that department heads and Council should be able to work this out among themselves, without paying some one to do it for them.
Orange City Council has spent a lot of money on consultants lately, especially for a city that claims to have to cut the aquatics program and community garden programs to balance the budget (more on those later.) So far this fiscal year, City Council has hired consultants to outsource paramedic/EMS service to Care Ambulance (a big Republican donor) and to get rid of the Fire Department. (The Voice of OC has a great story on Orange's attempts to get rid of their Fire Department.) All together, the three consulting studies could come out to $500,000, which is 5% of the budget deficit. Orange has gone on the consultant snipe hunt before.
Also remember that a large amount of staff time is spent when consultants are brought in. So, in addition to the bill for the consultants add in money for staff time. And, given how thin staff is these days, it means that something more important that doesn't involve consultants isn't getting done.
- Waste hauling contract - Waste Management stepped in when Orange Disposal could no longer meet their contractual, legal and financial obligations to the City. Councilmembers Bilodeau and Dumitru lead the effort to get the waste contract put out to bid. A study to find a consultant to do a waste hauling contract evaluation was done. Then, that consultant did a bid package and evaluated the bids using the criteria agreed upon by Council and staff. The staff consultant recommended staying with Waste Management. Council decided that price was the determining factor and went with CR&R. Download Jun92009Minutes Download Jun2309Minutes Download 4 Proposal ReviewCouncil ignored the consultant and gave the bid to CR&R. And why did we spend this money if Council had their mind made up to get a non-union hauler into the City?
- IT Contract Evaluation - Staff and council asked for the IT contract to be bid out and there are differing accounts of how the contractor, ACS, was perceived. Councilmember Bilodeau that the decided that the IT contract needed to be bid out event though the City had been using the same company for years and was happy. A consultant was hired, the bids were put out and evaluated. And, in the end, the decision was made to keep the current IT contractor because it didn't make sense to change. And why did we spend this money? Download IT_Consultant
The libraries are closed when kids need to do their homework but we have money for consultants. Instead of hiring consultants, open the Main Library on a Friday when it's closed and have a department head retreat in the large meeting room. Have local restaurants cater the food. If you ask really nice, the local restaurants may donate the food. The department heads can work out a plan. The work can be done by the City employee who know what is going on for a few thousand dollars instead of the hundreds of thousands it's going to cost for consultants who don't know what's going on.
Cuts That Don't Make Sense
Two of the Community Services programs on the chopping block are the aquatics program and the community gardens because they cost more than they bring in. The City spent a lot of money refurbishing the WPA-built pool in Hart Park to better serve residents for aquatics programs. The community garden lets families, retirees, children and others learn how to grow their own food. So there is money for consultants but no money to teach kids how to swim or for the retiree down the block to have a space at the community garden?
Pressure to Get Rid of Public Employees
Councilmember Fred Whitaker has been very open about his desire to get rid of City employees. He wants to sell off the water company (not deed it to Irvine Ranch Water District but sell it off for money.) His insistence of a huge check coming from the sale of the water company makes people wonder what kind of deal he's working on.
And he also wants to get rid of the City Attorney and use contract counsel instead. The City Attorney is City employee and can't be gotten rid of at will by Council. And, the City Attorney has not been afraid to advise Council that they may not be able to do what they want to do. Contract counsel can be fired if they don't do what Council wants them to do.
When Police Chief Gustavson was talking about how the Orange PD manages to still keep the City safe despite deep cuts, Whitaker wanted to know about Reserve officers pay and how it compared to regular officer pay. It's not a good idea to staff a police department with reserve officers to save money. We need to keep the cops we have. And find a way to get more.
Expect Whitaker to keep up the pressure to get rid of City employees. Private sector that makes a profit by cutting services good, City employees who bust their butts every day bad.
What to Do
- Call, email, write or go to the City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 15 at 4:30 to tell City Council we don't need consultants. We already paid for consultants to give our paramedic/EMS service to Care Ambulance. We're already paying for consultants to get rid of the Fire Department. Enough with the consultants.
- Watch what City Council does during the budget cycle and push back on what you don't like. Want to keep aquatics programs - speak up! Check agendas and minutes, watch on Time Warner, get a DVD from the City Clerk for $10. Want more library hours - speak up. Keep an eye on the Council.
- Watch for sneaky ways of cutting City services. A common target is street sweeping. Other tricks are outsourcing who runs the library, who provides park maintenance, and graffiti abatement. Once these services are given to the private sector, service goes down so the owners can make more profit. Good luck getting service restored. If street sweeping is outsourced, expect sweeping to become less and less as fuel prices rise because costs go up and eat into profits. Same thing with graffiti abatement (involves a lot of driving!) If park maintenance is outsourced, parks will deteriorate because the incentive is to get the bare minimum of work done as fast as possible before moving on to the next job. Think mow, blow, go.
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