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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSupplemental Information Distributed after Posting of Agenda Item D, G and JWinnie Bell From: Robin Roberts Sent: Monday, January 09, 2017 9:16 AM To: Winnie Bell Subject: FW: Questions for Monday night Attachments: 1.09.17.Questions.doc From: Robert Goldberg [mallto:raoldbera9bllve.com] Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2017 7:16 PM To: Jill Ingram; Ellery A. Deaton; Sandra Massa- Lavitt; Mike Varipapa; ssustarcicesealbeachca.aov; Thomas Moore Cc: Robin Roberts; Vikki Beatley Subject: Questions for Monday night Dear City Staff and Council, I have attached my questions and comments for the agenda items for Monday's meeting. I hope you will find these worthy of addressing either before or during your deliberations. Thank you, Robert Goldberg Questions for 1/09/17 Item B: Demands of Treasury Page 9, middle: Check to County of Orange for $3367 for 3`d quarter "Prosecution of Muni Code." The budget has $20,000 for code enforcement prosecution with Dapeer Rosenblit Litvak and $10,000 for general prosecution with Richards, Watson & Gershon. What types of misdemeanor "crimes' does the County of Orange prosecute for us? Page 12• top: Check to Hinderliter for $13,133 for 2 "d Quarter sales tax audit services. We typically pay just under $1000 /quarter for this service. Last year's 2nd Quarter audit services cost us $994. Why are we being charged $13,133 now? Page 17, bottom: Check to Brightview Landscape Services for $28,000 covering services through 12/10/16. At the last Council meeting on 12/12/16, staff did not request Council authorization to pay BrightView more than the City Manager's limit ($28,000). Has staff engaged the services of a different contractor, or are we doing it all in -house now? Item G : CAFR Page 8" Table 2: Total revenues for 14 -15 in Governmental Activities is shown as $34,029,000. However, page 34 of the current budget gives the "actual" General Fund total revenue for 14- 15 as $29,106,232. Please explain the difference between these two revenue numbers Similarly, this Table shows expenses for 14 -15 in Governmental Activities as $33,403,000. However, page 34 of the current budget gives the "actual" General Fund total expenditures for 14 -15 as $31,509,884 Please explain the difference between these two expenditure numbers Page 16: The table shows that General Fund balance includes $682,859 for Nonspendable Prepaid Costs. What is this? On the same page, there is $977,461 in the General Fund balance "Assigned to Community Services." What is this for? 1 Page 25: The total "Cash paid to employees for services' for the combined water and sewer funds is $4,581,767. In FY 14 -15, the same figure was $3,296,597. Why did this go up by almost $1.3 million? Page 51: The table at the bottom of the page shows estimates for net pension liabilities for three Plans. Does the figure for the "Safety Rate Plan" include the net liability associated with the City's Fire Safety Plan? Page 52: The last sentence states that for FY 15 -16, the "City recognized a total pension expense of $1,715,902 for all rate plans in total." Does this include the Fire Safety Plan? Is this the amount that was paid in FY 15 -16? How do "Pension contributions subsequent to measurement date" figure into this total? Page 63: Note 13 shows expended and remaining contract amounts for various CIP contracts. The second one listed, BG -1302 Emergency Backup Power for city hall and FS 44, shows $367,180 remaining. However, this contract dates back to FY 13 -14 and has been inactive after the City spent almost $88,000 in FY 14 -15 and then decided to not proceed with completion of this project. How does the CAFR categorize the status of the remaining $367,180? Is this money considered "assigned funds" that are not available for spending? J. Police Recruit The job bulletin states police recruits will be under the supervision of Academy Command Staff and a SB Police Sergeant or Officer. What role /time will be spent by our sworn staff while the recruit is in the Academy? What academy will the recruits be attending? Will the Police Recruit be enrolled in the City's Miscellaneous or Safety Pension Plan? The staff report presents this proposal as a "savings" of $25,136 over the 24 -week period of the training academy. This is derived by comparing the salary of the Police Recruit to a newly hired lateral officer. However, a lateral officer (who already be POST- certified) would not be going to an academy, but rather serving the citizens immediately by performing patrol duties. Therefore, the comparison is not appropriate. In reality, the proposal has a direct and unmitigated cost of $41,533 + $5000 (tuition, etc.) _ $46,533 which could be completely avoided by hiring a trained lateral, as we have traditionally done. This cost assumes that all recruits graduate which is far from reality. Data that I reviewed while serving as a Medical Director for LA County indicated that about 20% of the "partner agency" recruits at the Sheriffs Academy dropped out at various times, leaving the partner agency with nothing to show for its investment. Additionally, unless we are over- staffed, having a 6 -month vacancy for a police officer position (while we are waiting for graduation of the recruit) will require over -time to maintain service levels, costing thousands more for this proposal. These over -time costs may continue even after the academy, since a newly graduated recruit cannot go on patrol without partnering with a training officer, typically for a one -year period. Having to double -up on patrols and responses means that there is one less officer available to respond to a second call for service or to do routine patrol. Given these considerations, and the value of experience, most agencies would prefer hiring lateral officers whenever possible. The problem is that typical large agencies cannot find enough lateral officers to meet their hiring needs. How much difficulty have we had in filling recent vacancies with laterals? Note: The salary presented for Grade 15 does not reflect the 2% COLA raise effective 7/1/16. With the raise, Step 1 is $4692.54. With the 2016 COLA, Grade 14, Step 1 is $4578.09, making it the closest to the median of $4604.