Saratoga News

City staff is receptive to latest reorganization plan

By Sarah Lombardo

City Manager Larry Perlin's latest staff reorganization proposal met with blunt but favorable reaction from members of the Saratoga Employees Association.

"They told me to put it in writing," Perlin said.

The new plan calls for no additional layoffs of city staff, according to SEA representatives.

"We were pretty happy about it," SEA president Rick Torres said.

Perlin and SEA officials met late last month to discuss the implementation of Perlin's latest reorganization of city staff. At that meeting, Perlin announced that there would be no layoffs. Previously, Perlin had said there could be up to two employees laid off, possibly a public services assistant and a building maintenance custodian.

SEA responded April 2 by asking that the plan be written out.

SEA officials originally opposed another reorganization, and specifically any layoffs. Representatives from the group even attended the council meeting last month at which the plan was adopted and voiced their disapproval to the council.

According to Torres, negotiations are still ongoing over salary adjustments, but the main sticking point--the layoffs--had been worked out. "That was our main goal," Torres said. "The rest of it's pretty minor."

The reorganization is the second in a year. The first reorganization was in response to the city's budget crunch after losing the utility-users tax in 1996. That reorganization merged some city departments and positions and eliminated almost seven full-time jobs from the city's rosters. However, the plan resulted in only one employee actually leaving the city because so many positions had already been vacated.

Although the first reorganization saved money for the city, newly created positions have been difficult to fill, and staffers have been having to work to make up for the vacancies. In addition, Perlin said recruiting efforts were hampered by the fact that few applicants had ever worked for combined departments such as the city had under the plan.

The new plan separates the departments along more traditional lines and should make recruiting much easier, Perlin said.

It is also expected to save the city some $40,288 in management salaries and $14,740 overall. And it will actually increase the city's overall number of employees by almost one full-time position.

Recruiting efforts already seem to be paying off. Perlin announced to the City Council April 1 that a new assistant planner had recently been hired.

According to community development director James Walgren, the new hire brings the department up to full staff.

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