Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Nancy Jamello (in front) instructs her yoga class at the recreation center. She is concerned that if the city lays off a custodian, the area might not be clean for her night classes.

City staff questions new reorganization

By Sarah Lombardo

The city's final version of a staff reorganization plan, the second in a year, may have met with approval from the Saratoga City Council, but the plan's call for possible layoffs is not going over well with employees and some residents.

"We're kind of in the dark about this," Rick Torres, president of the Saratoga Employees Association, said. "We're puzzled because we just had the reorganization in July, and now we're doing it all over again."

The second reorganization was presented to the council last month by City Manager Larry Perlin, who said that the city's last reorganization, as a result of budget cuts last year, was not working and was making it difficult to recruit for open positions. And the city staff is spread so thin, he said, that it is all employees can do to keep up with day-to-day business, let alone tackle new problems or projects. Perlin himself has been working two jobs with the city for a year, one as the community environment director--formerly the public works director--and the other as interim and now permanent city manager.

"I cannot stress enough that we cannot continue to operate at our current levels," he told the council last month.

The new plan includes the deletion of some positions and the creation of others, which would actually increase city staff by almost one position. Savings resulting from the first plan were estimated to be about $95,007 in management salaries and $18,486 overall. The council sent the plan to the Finance Commission for its opinion, and the plan was returned to the council in early February. In the second version, it is estimated that the city would save $40,288 in management salaries and $14,740 overall, according to Perlin.

But the way the second version is arranged, as many as two employees could be laid off.

The positions targeted include a public services assistant and a building maintenance custodian. Torres said he doesn't understand why the city needs to lay people off after reorganizing such a short time ago when there haven't been additional funding cuts since then.

"With the last reorganization, we knew it was because of the loss of the tax," he said, "but this time ... we feel it's being done unnecessarily."

Last year's reorganization also eliminated and added positions, lowering the overall number of city jobs by almost seven. But because so many positions were already empty, many people shuffled to different jobs, and only one person was actually laid off. That reorganization combined many departments that had previously stood alone. Recruiting for the heads of these new departments has been difficult because so few other cities combine them, making the potential hire-pool small.

"I felt that there were still some weaknesses with the [January 1998] version that needed to be addressed, and it meant restoring a position that initially could have been eliminated," Perlin said, addressing why the second version of his plan included the elimination of two positions.

But some residents don't think looking lower in the employee chain was the right thing to do.

"I just hate to see somebody lose his job, especially the custodian, who probably makes the least," Saratoga resident Nancy Jamello said.

Jamello, who teaches yoga through the Saratoga Recreation Department, said she also believes that the elimination of one of the city's two custodians would make it difficult for her night classes because the facility is not likely to be cleaned before classes start.

The changes in the city's staffing also mean new negotiations with the SEA and the Saratoga Management Organization over salaries.

Perlin said he hopes to have agreements with both associations by May. Resolutions to begin implementing the new reorganization are expected to go before the council Wednesday, March 4, and pink slips for affected positions will be issued in April, Perlin said.

[ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ]