Glass City Jungle

March 4 Budget meetings for Toledo City Council Public Safety, Law & Criminal justice Toledo notes from audio.

Staffing Quick Facts as provided from more detailed notes: Fire department: 128 command and 359 non-command, 62 million dollar budget, a little over 59 million directly related to personnel costs. Police Department: 591 sworn personnel 102 of that are command officers and 122 civilians. The numbers listed are the line item numbers from those departmental budgets gone over.

Collins, Ludeman, Steel were present – Brown and Sarantou were not present when it began at 1:30 p.m.

Law Department

Adam Loukx, Lisa Fulton, Paul Syring, Dave Toska were there from the Law Department. Organizational charts from previous years and comparisons of previous years budgets for this department were provided.

Loukx said what you see refelected in one area in the law department collection of taxes has been increased. A new attorney has been added, Jim Bishop and Jeff Colturi, you may recall Colturi served in that capacity in the past so he has hit the ground running for a for total of 7 in STAX, three new hires total. These are general fund positions, that pay for themselves in what we generate.

The traditional areas of the law department as a reflection of budget realities those have gone down. 102,000 decrease with STAX over last year $210,000 decrease if you take STAX out of it.

They have tried to take advantage of grants, the prosecutor’s office is badly understaffed, one way to fill the need is senior attorney Sharon Gaich and Dave Toska at identifying grant money, they have brought in one attorney completely paid for by grants in addition to Gaich and they were able to bring in veteran attorney Dan Pilrose part time. They were able to temporarily address the prosecutor’s man power issues without impacting the general fund.

Collins noted on the record that Waniewski had arrived (he’s not a member of the committee)

Collins asked how many employees were added to the STAX unit in 2010

Loukx said only one was added, in the very last days in 2009, there is a difference in three over the last year. Jean Corontrado shows up on the organizational chart her start date is January 7. Megan Robson (former Acting PIO & Development Specialist) who had been with the City moved into the STAX unit in mid to late December. (I don’t have the organizational chart so I apologize in advance if names are spelled wrong).

Collins said it was stated by finance yesterday that it takes 8 to 10 months to get staff up to speed. Loukx said that is true which is why he was eager to bring Colturi back since “he wrote the book”.

Collins said on the record Sarantou had arrived.

Steel wanted Loukx to walk him through the personnel without going through the organizational charts.

Steel was not clear what he was asking for, Loukx said they had added Lourdes Santiago and Ellen Gracheck so they were steady in the number of employees in the law department but funding was down because of grants and lower salaries. If you look in far of lawyers it’s the same but they are down drastically as far as support staff.

Steel asked about professional development and training line items.

Loukx said training is for the lawyers for CLE training. Fulton said it item 1870 exempt-classified $450 stipend they get in January. The other line is the CLE. Both are required by code or contract.

2130 publications Steel wanted to know, Loukx said the biggest cost is the WestLaw electronic research, that’s 1,100 to 1,200 a month. Fulton confirmed that line item is completely for WestLaw.

3715 – Legal for the law department, it was costs to prepare for trial that would not be included under court costs, exhibits and things of that nature was asked by Steel.

He said noticed that the ITT charges have increased dramatically, 3722, Loukx said it has decreased this year, it was said it was based on how many computers they had, and upgrades that took place.

3755 arbitration, Loukx said that is arbitration fees, that’s one that they can not cut any lower and is probably lower than what they need. It’s also for grievances not just labor contracts.

3740 professional services increased dramatically in the past, Loukx said that is for the outside council, litgation fees, court reporters, the rise in 2009 was associated with labor assocation issues and a contract with Marshall & Melhorn, that is another account that they have struggled with in the past. Loukx said there is still one outstanding obligation which is why it’s lower than 2009 but higher than 2008.

Steel then asked about memberships, it was stated they cut many of them and then some were added back in.

3782 seasonal and interns, Loukx said those are an intregal part of the prosecutor’s office as far as research and helps make up for the lack of staffing.

Sarantou wanted to go back over some of the information that was shared and asked for more detail. He wanted to know how many seasonal employees there were Loukx said three. Sarantou then asked about professional services, it was stated that they exceeded the budget amount in the past. Loukx shared that he was concerned about the budget number they had but he has some optimism
that with Ellen Gracheck now in the office and Lourdes Santiago returning to the office he felt more comfortable. He felt Santiago with her institutional knowledge would help. Gracheck is assigned to labor law.

Sarantou asked about the travel costs and if those were related to things like liquor permits. He then asked about WestLaw, wanting to know if that was on the internet, he wanted to know of they were physical books, which they are not. Sarantou wanted to know what the cost of them moving from the 17th floor to the 22nd floor. Loukx said the mover was a thousand dollars, there was a grandfather clock that has 20 pounds of mercury that they could not move themselves.

Collins thought the move was a good one, that having lawyers work in cubicles was not a good idea. He also pointed out almost every credible law firm in the City uses WestLaw and that while the City’s law department did not have updated books and the only organization within the City of Toledo that spends money on new law books each year from Agriculture to Mining is the Toledo Municipal Court, each judge gets a new set of books each year.

Collins said in looking at the STAX unit and you look at the org charts there is a telling story, in 2008 they had 3 people working in this unit, that’s when there was 22 million dollars in outstanding tax collection, then it was brought up to 6 and now 9. He applauded Loukx and the law department and finance for preserving through this. He felt these should have been aggressively filled and the money sought then, it’s one of the reasons Collins felt there was the problems there is today.

Collins also felt the current law department is doing the same level of work with less staff. Loukx said there was perhaps a little more work than what they had before. Collins suggested that the law department look at the issue of legal representation the way IT does as far as charge backs. When a department or division brings them in to do grievance and have it go back against that department’s budget since they had little or no say when the problem was created. He’d like the administration to take a serious look at all of the
departments and that the law department bill back regardless of who the winner is. We need to change our culture as far as how we are doing business. He thinks this would have a stifling effect on the number of grievances if the department involved in the grievance was responsible for the charge.

Ludeman asked if there are any anticipated retirements in the people listed on the organizational chart. Loukx said one staffer that is assigned to them retires in April, there is not anyone else that his given him notice, there is a possible one or two. Ludeman asked if Loukx receives resumes on positions, Loukx said he gets resumes at least once or twice a week.

Sarantou asked if there is any possibility of the law department getting interns from the University of Toledo law school to reduce their costs. It was stated they interviewed several for ex-terning which is at no cost to the city, there are six in the hopper and they will be able to use at least 4 of them with the hopes some could stay on part time. So they are benefiting from cheap labor, they have one extern right now that is working for Jim Bishop. They have a paralegal working as an extern. The prosecutor’s office has interns as well who are getting class credit and they have volunteer interns that do not even get a stipend to work for no pay at all or credit, so they are averaging 6 or 7 through out the season, many of which receive no pay from Toledo and no pay from the University. If they did not have those folks the operation would be much slower. They had to close their office last year when they had no one to answer the phones when they were at court.

Police department was next…

Chief Navarre and Deputy Director Green were part of those in attendance.

591 sworn personnel and 122 civilians, 8 retirements so far this year 4 or 5 in the next several weeks. They have to stay above 564, he does not believe they will drop to that prior to February of next year, if we don’t hire we will fall below since that month 25 to 30 officers are planned to retire. Last month he felt they would have 75 over the next 24 months he still thinks that is accurate. Last year 41, 28 and 21 retirees. They have a total of 17 funded civilian vacancy in communications and records they plan to fill the communication vacancies because 6 of the 11 will be paid for by a federal grant and the five other have to be filled before then so they will save money by hiring com operators and will eliminate the over time in communications. There is still recall occurring on a daily basis in records. There is a total of 11 command vacancies – 6 sgt – 5 lt. A freeze on promotions was in place last year. In early February they were told to reduce 10% of their non-personnel costs.

They had 45,000 for safety city, paid to the teachers they eliminated that funding and will use auction trust fund money for that. $91,000 was eliminated for mounted patrol, that included $61,000 for one account. They have no plans to use mounted patrol in this calendar year. They took 18,000 from their training account with the rest coming from uniform costs and supplies.

Waniewski asked if they were still paying for the facility that had housed the horses? Navarre said they still do, and he just sent a request to the law department on that. There was supposedly a copy of the extension but the time period is not known since they can not find the contract but they may not owe the money for 2010.

Waniewski asked why the tuition costs were up $150,000 it was stated that is a contractual item with the bargaining units, for individuals who take college courses. Waniewski said the classes could have nothing to do with law enforcement? Navarre said that was correct. Waniewski asked how many were taking advantage of that. They did not have a number. Waniewski asked if there was a cap, it was stated there was not. Waniewski asked so if someone wanted to get a Ph.D. they would just file it and if you have the money you pay. It was stated that was correct.

Waniewski asked about clothing and linens, he asked why that number would jump. It was stated because of the new class, they budgeted about $125,000 to outfit the new officers.

Waniewski asked when the grants started and ended. Navarre said the grant they accepted in July is a three year grant, it pays the total cost of salary and benefits for three years and we have to maintain that for an additional year so it’s until 2013. The total grant amount was about 8 million dollars over three years.

Ludeman asked about the cap on tuition reimbursement. Collins said this is two different situations. Navarre said that they were capped as far as the hours they could take but not the reimbursement.

Ludeman asked why professional services went up. A $150,000 payment to the TPCOA as part of a settlement, $25,000 to TPPA as a settlement, costs associated by the new class, physicals, psychological tests, cost of testing, costs in promotional tests. There will not be any promotions this year but there will need to be tests given at some point to promote next year. Drug testing is a part of that.

Ludeman said the building that the horses were stabled in was being torn down, Navarre said he had just talked to Dave Ball and he did not mention that. Ludeman said if the building was being torn down they should not have to pay rent.

Sarantou asked how many new police officers we will have this year, he was told 30, he went over the uniform costs previously covered. The City pays for the cost of the uniforms they don’t do the change of season, they only replace clothing as needed.

Steel asked about the sick time, The change in the contract lets there be a payout of sick time, they have a significant number of officers with a large amount of sick time.

Steel then asked about publications, it was stated those are criss cross guides and similar items that are not online. He then asked about postage costs since there had been fluctuation on that. Navarre said now that postage is coming out of the tow lot since that is the place where most of the certified letters come from.

Steel then asked about the tool account fluctuating and wanted to know what kinds of tools they buy. It was stated locks, speed detection devices need special types of locks, they buy stamps, signature stamps, notary stamps there are not big items in there and that includes the paper targets they use at the firing range.

Steel then asked about repair parts, it’s machines at the range, time clocks, alarms, it is in line with what their costs were.

The miscellaneous is the taser costs, 14,000 is related to training for that.

Collins asked since Navarre is listed on both org charts they may want to look at that. Collins said as of today there is 104 command officers? Navarre said there are two less because two retired. There are 102 command officers they should have 92 sgts and 30 lts is the number they are supposed to have even though they have not made the promotions they are paying acting time. Navarre said they are paying very little acting time, they have reorganized so that the acting time is almost non-existent.

Collins wanted to know what was going to be done with the equipment, he said they would stabilize the equipment and sell the horses. Collins said those who donated horses, want their horses back.

Collins wanted more detail on the $150,000 to TPOCA, Navarre said the payment to the TPPA was an agreement on pending grievances, about a dozen grievances resolved. $25,000 is a small amount as far as prior negotiations. Command payment was made for grievances but those were higher dollar numbers and the risk was much higher and the potential for a larger settlement against the city was greater. That amount was agreed upon between the command negotiating team and Justice Douglas who was selected by the city to negotiate. Collins said almost 3/4 of a million dollars has been spent to settle grievances. He wanted more details on that.

Navarre said he could provide a list of the grievances, Collins said he was there when it was negotiated. Collins wanted to know what the issues were. Navarre said it was approved by the two sides and Council voted on it.

Collins is proposing that when contract arbitrations the department is responsible back to the law department as a cost back and pay the law department their billable hours out of their contract. He thinks Navarre is running a businesses and things that should be resolved in house are not, it should be billed to that department and he thinks that would solve some of the $150,000 mysteries. Collins also wanted a real time assessment of officers to civilians. He doesn’t think the community understands the fact we have the lowest ratio of officers to citizens of any city of our size. People are complaining about failure to investigate burglaries, people are not understanding of the circumstances. When we tell citizens damned lies that we are the safest city, which we have no control over homicides than we do where a duck flies.

Waniewski wanted to revisit the mounted patrol, he wants to know the status of the stable. They appropriated money in 2009 to keep the facility going and they were going to buy it. They were in year six of a ten year payment plan from what he remembers. Waniewski asked how much they would get for selling the horses, the idea is to eliminate the cost of caring for the horses, $3,000 per month. Waniewski said it’s too bad they can’t use the horses to boot cars. Navarre said there is no greater advocate of the mounted patrol than me, he said we’ve always had the option to buy it, the lease did not go towards the purchase price.

Waniewski said in HR they said they were paying for the testing for new officers and that is why their costs went up it’s also being listed here, so who is paying for the testing, HR or Police?

He said he can’t speak for HR, when they met with budget they asked for a certain amount, He was told that if they use a pencil, HR is billing them for that. Waniewski asked for a referral on the HR side.

Sarantou had follow up questions. He asked about stress pay for officers and wanted to know where that is in the budget, Navarre said it is an annual payment given as part of the contract. One is paid in January and one is in June. $500 per officer and it’s in the base wages and salary account.

Ludeman said the horse stables are not being torn down, just the stalls. He wanted a breakdown of professional services. He asked if the legal fees for Douglas was included, Navarre said there was no legal fees associated with that from their end.

Ludeman said they are selling window decals at ten dollars each to help PAL (police athletic league) going.

Steel wanted a complete list of the costs of the police class from each department as far as costing it out by line item and by division. Collins asked if this was the same class from before it was then 33, Navarre said some had some negative points and those could have been reduced. Collins thinks his number is conservative and with the number of officers leaving in 2011, he thinks it’s going to be closer to 100 to 115 and they won’t have the ability to place another class until late October of 2011 since that is how long the time line is.

Steel wanted to know why the severance payments were so high. It was stated they had a change in the contract that people can get a portion of their sick time paid out. It is a significant increase. Steel also wanted clarification of the HR budget when it comes to contractual services since it seems as if this is in HR and police. It was stated that contract services like Owens, like the hazardous materials contract obligations with outside vendors.

Fire Department Budget…

Chief Michael W. Wolever went right to the strength numbers, they lost people since the first of the year, so they are at 497 uniformed firefighters they are on track to lose 25 the next three years. The breakdown between civilian and FF was broken down, 15 battalion chiefs, 3 deputy chiefs, 359 firefighters/paramedics, 84 lts,

Collins asked so you have 128 command and 359 non-command.

There was some discussion as to how the department accounts for retirements, it was stated that they typically only count half the wages for those expected to retire.

Collins said the pie chart shows where the cost comes out of the fire department. Personnel costs versus capital costs was discussed, Collins wanted to know what percentage of the budget is capital costs. It was stated very little is with the exception of the vehicles, 62 million is their total budget, 59 almost 60 million is salary and benefit costs.

The discussion went to the ratio of command to line fireman, what the industry standard was to have that many, our ratio is 2.89 Wolever said the standard was 1 for every 3 to 7, he explained the battalion chiefs are part of a crew.

Collins appeared to feel the fire command was a bit top heavy as the questioning on that issue continued. Collins cited a fax, Wolever said he told him to not use that one because it was not accurate. The original chart did not include some of the staff.

Collins then wanted to cover fire inspections. In early December Collins got a referral on this, then he asked for the budget for fire inspections. It was stated $370,000 are the fire civilian inspectors. The annual cost is about $350,000? It was stated they were one and a half position short right now, if they had 6 civilian inspectors it would be $370,000 but they are below that now. In 2008 Collins said each inspector based on a $40.00 fee brings in $7,726.00 a year.

It was stated that was incorrect, that they have a revenue budget, Collins said he has the revenue budget, it shows about 50 grand. It was stated there was a number of things they collect in addition to fire inspection fees, they bring in total of about $340,000. It was stated if they had the full staff they would have had more. It’s about a break even versus revenue scenario.

Collins said this was really confusing to him because he was told as of October 2009, 973 general inspectors were done, that generated under $45,000. It was stated that is not all they do, so basing it on just that number was misleading.

Collins wanted it broken down so they can see what the costs are, what the real costs are for fire inspections. Collins wanted to know how many cities in Ohio use a program similar to or exactly the same as what we do. How many fire departments in the State of Ohio (large cities) how many have a fire inspection bureau, how many employees do they have and what is their turn over (amount earned) Wolever said they can do that, they are charged by the State of Ohio to do this. He said every department does that and some use firefighters that make over 80 dollars a year, they felt that was not cost effective. Which is why they used civilians. Their income is considerably less than a full time firefighter and accomplishes what the state and city requires is done.

Wolever said when they started the EMS they did not have the staff to be able to do these inspections without interruption.

Ludeman needed clarification on a few line items – 1740 which was medical insurance, that is 748,000 less in 2010 than in 2009. Ludeman wanted to know why its lower. It was stated two things were lower, they had the dispatchers under their insurance they were switched over to part of the police, that was 15 and they had more people retire so the insurance costs dropped.

1850 – dropped it was negotiated that the union would give back their clothing allowance.

2310 – they purchased protective uniform clothing for a class and during the 10% previous budget cut they dropped that one, they said that was going to be harder to match.

They still have a half of year of very high overtime since the class will not be on the street until later this year.

1350 was a little over a million – it was said that in 2009 employees agreed to a cut in PERS.

Ludeman said there were some cuts but he said over all the budget was 4.8% higher. It was stated the banked comp time and the over time were part of those increases, the sick/severance pay out is higher.

Steel wanted to follow up on overtime, when was the new class supposed to start? Five hit the street a week ago, 15 in April and the rest in May. Steel doesn’t understand why the 2010 overtime is a million over. It would have been higher, $6.3 million total.

2349 – chemicals and lap supplies that’s been a continuous rise over the past five years. It’s EMS supplies and the cost has gone up as well as BLS runs are up. They bring in 1.5 million but there are costs associated with it.

Vehicle rental? There was noting in 06 and jumped the three years. That was the first group of ambulances.

2732 facility operations – the fleet backcharges them work on their vehicles, they have no control over that.

3741 contractual services has jumped dramatically, it said there was a charge there for the BLS transport fees, 6.5% what they collect, so they put that in that account code, about $137,000 of it is that.

Steel wanted to know about the intermediate account clerk. THat position has been vacant since 2008 and was vacant in 2009 and because of that they did not do as many auto insurance accident billings as they could have. They feel if they fill that position they’ll generate $100,000 more a year.

Sarantou asked if there was a contractual lump sum payment to firefighters similar to the police stress payment. It was stated that was $500.00 per officer. Sarantou wanted to know how many fire automobiles go home at night. It was stated 6, chief officers or people required to be there, like the safety officer.

Sarantou asked about the vehicle rental, that was covered earlier. Then he asked about facility operations that was asked before. Sarantou wanted to know how the suburban fire departments maintained their vehicles, he said he though they did some of that in house. Sarantou asked if there had been any discussion to join to do maintenance? Wolever said no but there had been direction in brining in outside areas for dispatch. Sarantou thought there might be some cost savings with Ottawa Hills and others.

He asked about the BLS billing that was previously asked. He then asked how many the new fire class would have. 38 was stated again. Sarantou asked about the new radio system and if that has generated any cost saving, Wolever said it reduced repairs, by about $50,000.