City Furloughs

[Hoss]

In order RM to update, the former mayor was also of the same gender as the present one. 

Gender identity FAIL....

[ILUVTulsa]

Can someone tell me what the annual budget is for Tulsa? I just want to get some figures to do a comparison Between Tulsa and the city I work for which is roughly half the size.

$578,000,000

[Wilbur]

and just a thought for everyone to chew on.  On chatty kathy's order, all the copying machines for the city of tulsa were replaced.  on general this wouldn't mean much, unless you look at the cost and pure volume of it all.  When I say all, I mean all, even the little one out at the maintnance shack that has barely been used.   Everythign was upgraded from what they had.  So, we're talking roughly 500 machines (I'm shooting low here because I'm not sure of the exact numbers), that cost about 3k each (once again, going for the low end).  That was $1.5 million on something that really wasn't needed.  Just shows were the priorities are with our great mayor.

Add in her requirement to replace the email system.

[Rico]

Possibly the Mayor could hold a "Town Hall" style meeting and give the public an opportunity to question some of these "vital services". You know a modern day approach to allow the citizens of Tulsa to become more involved in the local Government.

TulsaNow could make this happen.

The Mayor could make this happen.

These cuts affect more than just the City employees.

[dbacks fan]

$578,000,000

Thanks for the info.

[TUalum0982]

Possibly the Mayor could hold a "Town Hall" style meeting and give the public an opportunity to question some of these "vital services". You know a modern day approach to allow the citizens of Tulsa to become more involved in the local Government.

TulsaNow could make this happen.

The Mayor could make this happen.

These cuts affect more than just the City employees.

and in the same meeting, citizens can offer cost saving ideas.  I have weekly conference calls at work with other managers from all over the region and the sole purpose is to come up with effective cost cutting and additional revenue generating ideas.

I don't have a problem with furloughing "non essential" employees for a few days if thats one of the only ways they do it, but I think there are some better alternatives.

They should look into their expenses and see where they can cut certain things from diff depts.  Not major cuts or anything but small things like getting bids on office supplies instead of using their same supplier I am sure they have been using for years, turning off lights and computers at night (that ice cube is bright at night).  I do not work for the city so I am not sure what their protocal is or how they operate, but there has to be certain things they have been doing for years that can be done more economically.



I

[nathanm]

had no real maintenance cost for the use they had. 

That means nothing if you have a maintenance contract on the copier. The point of the contract is to have a flat fee.

Do we even know that the city did own or now owns its copiers? Just wondering, since almost all of my clients lease theirs, as it tends to be cheaper for their workload.

[MH2010]

A few years ago, the city went thru this same thing.  Mayor Lafortune wanted all city employees to take a pay cut.  The FOP found a way to save the city even more money and not take a pay cut.  The mayor went with the FOP's suggestion and saved additional money (while officers lost money because they chose to take all overtime in compensatory time).  However, all the other city employees were mad that the police officers did not take a pay cut.

When the FOP talked to the mayor about how money was saved the last time this happened, she did not want to even listen.  She is determined that all city employees will have "furlough days".  This is actually better for the officers because our base pay may be cut 1.54% but our overtime opportunities just increased dramatically for several reasons.  In fact, I think I will probably see my pay going up.

1.  Within the department, there are minimium manning levels for each shift. The federal government ruled that compensatory time must be given unless there is a emergency.  As a result, we are continually hiring officers back to get above minimium manning levels. On the day the officer gets "furloughed", we will just put him at the top of the overtime list.  That officer will then work the next overtime shift offered.  Now that officer is getting overtime for a 10 hour shift that he was earlier furloughed for at a rate of time and a half.

2. Less officers on the street means less people to do the work.  Therefore, more work (calls, reports ect) to do.  Officers will be working longer hours and getting time and a half for it. No one is going to tell officers that they can not enforce the law for the last hour or two of their shifts.

I will make a prediction that within the police budget, the mayor will spend more money on overtime in the next fiscal year then she will save with the furloughs.

[Double A]

Here's some info from an old(03/04/07) article about the Mayor's employees raises:

Mayor Kathy Taylor's 13 at-will employees saw raises ranging from 8 percent to 22 percent in January, even though most of them began working for the city less than a year ago

The mayor's 13 at-will employees include:

    * Lisa Mosely, a carryover from former Mayor Bill LaFortune's administration, who was the lowest paid staffer in Taylor's office, making $23,463 to be the front desk receptionist. Her new salary after receiving a 22 percent raise is $28,546.

    * Susan Neal joined the mayor's staff May 15 and is the education and legislative liaison and oversees a number of depart ments. She received a 17 percent raise, bumping her salary from $76,099 to $89,026.

    * Josh Davis joined the mayor's team April 11 as an aide but is now a policy and research analyst. He received a 12.5 percent raise, increasing his salary from $37,565 to $42,256.

    * Christian Helm started April 25 and Monroe Nichols began working May 16 as aides. Both received 11 percent raises, bumping their salaries from $33,395 to $37,116.



Taylor's eight additional at-will employees received 8 percent salary raises.

    * Deputy Mayor Tom Baker, who started work April 11, saw his salary increase from $82,309 to $89,026.

    * General Counsel Nancy Siegel, who originated the position Sept. 1, had her pay raised from $87,803 to $94,968.

    * Communications Director Sheryl Lovelady, who began Aug. 1, had her salary increased from $82,309 to $89,026.

    * Chief Technology Officer Ben Stout, who joined the city Aug. 1, received a salary raise from $125,000 to $135,204. A portion, $30,000, comes from the Tulsa Community Foundation.

      Stout is the fourth highest paid employee in the city's government, behind Public Works Department Director Charles Hardt, who earns $171,304; City Physician Phillip Berry, who makes $161,537; and Fire Chief Allen LaCroix, who earns $145,344. Police Chief Dave Been is ranked fifth, making $132,476.

    * Economic Development and Real Estate Director Don Himelfarb, who joined the city Sept. 5, received a pay raise from $105,000 to $113,568.

    * Deputy Director of Policy and Research Monica Barczak, who came to work for the mayor June 24, received a salary raise from $62,548 to $67,652.

    * Mayoral Scheduler Leslie Meade, who started April 10, had her pay increased from $43,946 to $47,532.

    * Monica Hamilton, another LaFortune carryover, was moved from heading up neighborhood outreach and services to leading the Mayor's Action Center. Her pay was increased from $40,630 to $43,946.

[RecycleMichael]

That occured when times were better. Many of those employees don't work there anymore.

Many of those salaries are also lower than similar responsibility positions on the council staff. Most of her staff also makes less than the starting salary of a Tulsa police officer. The council chief of staff makes 15% more than the Mayor's similar person. The council has a research guy being paid $76,000 per year. Why the outrage of the Mayor's staff and silence on the Council's?

If you compare the salaries of the top people, the IT guy, Communications officer, the lawyer, the Chief of staff, etc., you will see they are right in line with similar paying jobs in other cities and the private sector.

[nathanm]

Add in her requirement to replace the email system.

Which may or may not have been wise, depending on what the previous platform was, what its ongoing support costs would be, and what features the new one brings to the table that the old one did not have.

Now, if the change was merely because the new "CTO" was unfamiliar with the old system, (Say he's an Exchange/Outlook person and the city was using Domino/Notes) that is in fact something we should be upset about.

If anyone has further information on this, I'd be interested to hear it, since it's in my area of expertise.

[Wilbur]

If you compare the salaries of the top people, the IT guy, Communications officer, the lawyer, the Chief of staff, etc., you will see they are right in line with similar paying jobs in other cities and the private sector.

I find it strange when you say these people should be paid on average with the "jobs in other cities and the private sector", but when it comes to the rest of the employees you say they shouldn't be paid average because they "are paid enough."

[shadows]

Naw he was only a stand-in between truly acting mayors.

[custosnox]

That means nothing if you have a maintenance contract on the copier. The point of the contract is to have a flat fee.

Do we even know that the city did own or now owns its copiers? Just wondering, since almost all of my clients lease theirs, as it tends to be cheaper for their workload.

The previous machines were leased.  I honestly can't say rather the new ones are leased or owned.  My point is that this was a lot of money worth of equipment, and while some was needed not all of it was.  However, I will concede the point that the lease being up may have made it neccessary to replace them.

[custosnox]

I am just amazed at what people will attack her for. For all we know the purchasing department went through their annual bidding process and bought some copiers like they do every year.

Did the previous Mayor buy any new copiers? Probably. Did you call him names and imply his priorities were out of whack? No.

No, it was not an annual bidding.  Same company that was used previously, and it's not a yearly situation of replacing some of the machines, but a complete replaement of all machines.

And for the record, I liked LaFortune even less, and was hoping Taylor would lead us in a better direction.