CITY MANAGER UPDATE
By Virginia Barney
For publication Wednesday, July 28, 2010
As published in the Upper Arlington News
Efforts Continue to Keep City Expenses in Check
As the government entity that most directly impacts residents' lives and the overall health and wellbeing of the Upper Arlington community, City Council and Staff take seriously our charge to serve you effectively and responsibly. We are continually reviewing the services we provide to make sure they meet residents' needs but also to identify new and more effective ways of doing business that may have the added benefit of keeping costs in check, while staying ever watchful for alternate funding sources such as grants.
In light of the economy, seeking and adopting cost saving measures has been of prime importance for several years now, but always with the goal of maintaining a high level of service. Examples of areas where we have identified and implemented change that has held costs in check include the 2008 switch to privatized solid waste services, restructuring of our Public Services Department which has enabled several positions to be phased out as retirements have occurred, and most recently making a switch to outsourced custodial services for our City buildings.
The Council Finance Committee is continuing these cost saving efforts in 2010 - with several areas currently under review - working with Staff to consider additional areas for study, while asking a similar set of questions relative to each:
- What is our current approach, how did it evolve historically, and how effectively is it working?
- What are other communities doing and could any of these different approaches work in UA?
- Are there partnership opportunities?
- If an alternate approach is viable, what would the transition and start up costs be, and what would the long-term costs/savings be?
Would service levels be negatively impacted or enhanced?
Staff is preparing to embark on a Total Compensation Survey that will measure the competitiveness of employees' salaries and benefits. This study will undertake actual wage comparisons for like positions at other public and private entities, as well as consider the overall benefits packages offered to non-union employees including health, dental and life insurance, retirement benefits, longevity pay, and personal benefits such as vacation, personal days and public holidays.
We are in the midst of seeking proposals from qualified consultants to embark on this study on the City's behalf, and anticipate bringing a recommendation on the preferred bidder, along with details of the extent of services and study costs, to City Council early fall.
Concurrently, Staff will be undertaking a study of employee healthcare benefits, to see if savings can be realized by moving to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for all non-union employees (currently employees can choose from an HSA or traditional approach).
Secondly, a detailed study of Upper Arlington's provision of emergency 9-1-1 services is scheduled, a process anticipated to occur over the course of approximately one year. Staff is to consider the pros and cons, opportunities and challenges, short- and long-term costs for the following scenarios:
- Maintaining the current 9-1-1 Communications Center and all its services;
- Outsourcing the 9-1-1 Communications Center to another agency/entity;
- Establishing Upper Arlington as a provider of 9-1-1 Communications for other jurisdictions seeking said services, as a means of generating support revenues;
- Considering the options for working on a regional level to establish a regional center for the provision of said services.
2009 PAFR
Watch for your copy of the 2009 Comprehensive Annual Report (PAFR), produced by our Finance Department. The PAFR provides you with a much abridged, reader-friendly summary of the Comprehensive version known as the CAFR. In it you can find a summary of revenues and costs for the year, see a snapshot of major infrastructure projects on the horizon through the Seven-Year Capital Improvement Program and how these projects are funded, as well as gain insight on where your property tax dollars go.
Since we first began producing the PAFR five years ago, the City has annually received the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association.
The PAFR is already available online at www.uaoh.net, but every household in UA is scheduled to receive a copy within the next few days. If you have any questions about the information found in the PAFR, contact the Finance Department at 583-5280.
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