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High turnover finally levels off with the City Hall's staff
By Steve Enders
The city of Saratoga says it's finally seeing a slowdown of the high turnover rate that's plagued City Hall over the past two years.
Concerns about city staffing were raised by city Finance Commission chairman Chuck Swan in a joint City Council meeting last month. Swan told the council that the city's independent auditors, Maze and Associates, had brought the issue up because the high turnover might be bad news to the city--and that insufficient staff size could make it difficult for the city to perform its day-to-day duties. Also, he said, the heavy workloads may lead to even more turnover.
But that's not the case, according to City Manager Larry Perlin. He said he's happy with the staff at City Hall, and has seen a stabilization with employees over the past few months. He said they will continue to be able to "deliver the quality and quantity of services that the council wants and the residents want."
Perlin added that he's fully confident in his staff--which is good news to them, especially since employee contract negotiations are on the horizon and preliminary budget talks are already in full swing.
"We'll always have a certain amount of turnover and attrition," he said, adding that employees will always look for bigger and better. "I'm extremely pleased with the caliber of employees we've had, especially with what we've had to work with."
Every week the City Council directs staffers to perform tasks, including crunching numbers, researching various issues and assisting residents in finding appropriate city services.
Even though city staff is working hard and getting an incredible amount of work done, it doesn't mean they're entirely happy.
Over the past year and a half, Perlin said, the city has experienced about a 60 percent turnover rate. Most of that, he said, is directly related to Saratoga residents' decision in 1996 to cut the city utility-user's tax, which in turn cut about $1.5 million from the city budget.
When the vote was cast, the city had to lay off some employees because the city could no longer afford their salaries. Other city staff positions were combined and consolidated. Even Perlin served for a time as the city's public works director and city manager.
Adding to the problem is that, among local cities of similar size, Saratoga has some of the lowest-paid city employees per capita. That's because the budget is so small, according to Director of Administrative Services Mary Jo Walker.
The city has just under 50 full time employees--15 percent less than two years ago--who serve a population that's now up to 31,000. In Los Gatos 100 full-time employees, aside from the city's police department, serve 30,000 people.
"The city utility-user's tax [cut] caused us to lose 20 percent of our general fund revenue," Walker said, "and that lead to staff cuts and reorganizing departments."
The issue of pay and staffing may come up again soon as well, as the city's two employee bargaining agencies go into talks with Perlin, who will represent the City Council in coming months.
Perlin said he doesn't know if the Saratoga Employee Association and the Saratoga Management Organization will ask for raises or increase in staffing. Most employees at City Hall are at the end of a two-year contract, he said.
"Occasionally there's some frustration from various commissions that things are taking a long time to get done, but that's just the facts. I wouldn't suggest that we need more staff.
"We'll get together and find out what their desires are and discuss them with the council," Perlin said. "It's a back-and-forth negotiation."
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
