08-15-16 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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There are three - hundred and one (301) employees in Public Works, over half of our City employees in Police and Fire, the next biggest category is Parks and Arts, but there are tons of part-time and seasonal folks. The numbers shown in the Mayor's presentation only represent full -time positions. This is budgeted, so it is not unusual for a training department to always run behind what is budgeted, because it takes time to get those people into their positions. We're trying to budget as accurately as possible in terms of what we have. There are fewer shiny objects, as a function of making sure that. we are positioning ourselves well to prepare for the fiscal curb. We only have a couple of years to get that in order. The expenditures are down from 2015, because of differences in sewer bonds and capital expenditures. Expenditures will be higher than revenue because we do cash accounting in the bond proceeds, so it can throw the numbers off a bit. For there to be a long -term sustainable balance, we are relying on reserves, enough that we have some decisions to make in order to make sure we are sustainable. We believe this budget is the right mix of investment and restraint in partnership with the Council and we're looking forward to its passage. Committee Chair White told the Mayor that once the Council has a chance to read through and digest his comments, they will have questions for him. She stated that she is pleased that the Administration heard some of the Council priorities such as focusing on the neighborhoods and curbs and sidewalks, and she looks forward to good budget hearings. Administration John Murphy, City Controller with offices on the 12th floor of the County -City Building, began by introducing his team and explaining their mission to provide efficient internal services that unlock the full potential of our human and financial capital for the long run. Administration and Finance is generally an internal department. With the exception of Human Rights which services the public, we mainly support other departments in the City. Mr. Murphy introduced the staff of Administration and Finance to the Committee. There are a number of personnel moves this year. We are moving IT and performance management to a separate fund #279. That was the fund originally set up for 311, it is an internal service fund, and IT is ideally suited to be an internal service fund, so we thought it was appropriate as they are merging for them to merge into the same fund. It makes it a little tricky the first year, but in the long run it is a good idea. We also moved fiscal officers from various departments, not physically, but they are now in our budget because there is a reporting requirement to our office. They are not new positions, they are just being reduced from their department budget and included in our budget. One financial specialist position is being eliminated through attrition, pending retirement at some point. A grants administrator from DCI is a transfer position, it is not a new position. Grants has been a pesky thing, there is no major problem with misspending in the City, but some of the accounting C