Budget Committee June 13, 2023   6/13/2023

I'll ask the clerk to call the roll to verify the presence of a quorum.

Vitor.

Present.

Goodman.

Present.

Chuktai, present Johnson, present Vice Chair Palmisano, present Chair Koski, present There are 12 members present

Welcome.

Again, by fund, cash in that position, ending balance for each of the previous two years, 21 and 22, showing increases and decreases.

I see Councilmember Payne.

Is that a correct reflection of what we're looking at?

Chair Koski, Council Member Payne, yes, relative to recent history, the financial position of the city is strong, yes.

I mean, is there like kind of like a singular thing we can look at or some like big buckets of things we can look at in terms of how how is our budget so far off from our actual

And that's kind of how we ended up where we are today.

Thank you.

Since we, you know, hold the power of the purse.

I see our interim director of budget coming up to answer that question.

Hopefully that answers the question.

No?

Excellent.

So to put it more plainly, is the mayor going to allocate that money in his recommended budget should we not allocate it ourselves prior to that?

see how that's being allocated out as part of the financial decision-making process.

Thank you very much.

I'm not sure if it's for Mr. Harrison or… Probably.

So at that time, was that surplus that was just discussed right now, was that factored into it or not?

broader use of that large cash amount that's available.

I'm assuming at that time those figures are not also being factored into 2024 budgets or it will be in the coming weeks once we get a clearer sense of how much that actually will be in additional revenue.

And so those will need to be incorporated into the budget decision-making process as well this year.

have some equity in that, we should definitely get that information as we're in budget season this summer.

It can be built into our financial plans, but again, truly a one-time opportunity.

I think in that chart there's a section of Gray there and I'm not sure if I'm doing my math correct so.

But yeah, I believe the remainder or kind of the available funding there would be in that $30 million range as we get close to the end of the

Welcome.

General overview that impacts personnel in our decisions therefore and then I'm going to turn it and then we'll turn it over to our interim budget director Robert Harrison so with that I'm going to turn it over to

This increased workload has led to longer time to fill for vacancies on average seven days longer in 2022 than in 2021 Despite these challenges the city has maintained year-over-year Increases in BIPOC and female applicants new hires and representation in the workforce I am now going to hand it over to interim budget director Harrison.

Thank you Thank you miss Odom welcome

So with this, we'll conclude our presentation on the information that was submitted as part of this legislative directive and stand for questions.

I see Councilmember Payne in queue.

I'd like to just know what's included in that scope of in-process.

I don't want to misstate the specific metric that we used in order to count that, but we did have a specific metric in mind.

So whether they're in hiring, some have offers out at this moment, some people have accepted offers and are just waiting for a start date, so kind of all across the board, but they do have recs that have been approved.

Or is the majority is it that they're pretty far along the hiring process?

Anecdotally, I think a lot of them are somewhere in the middle of the hiring process in terms of we're actually actively getting candidates and doing interviews, but I couldn't speak to what percentage or what number that was.

Thanks.

Council Member Monti?

Do we know if we're on track to make that?

That's something we can certainly follow up on if needed.

using overtime in order to meet the city's needs with respect to service provisions.

Do you have any more accurate updates on that piece too?

So it's going to be some time.

And then this is probably related to the Office of Public Service, but thinking of MPI, because that's one of the positions that's coming forward and actually

a couple positions now.

Because I know we've had some recent departures of staff from that division, so wasn't sure if that was reflective in these figures too.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, next we have Councilmember Ellison.

And I'm just trying to reconcile that.

If the department doesn't have other personnel savings to cover the cost, whether from changes to other positions or steps or health care elections would have either liable to cover that cost as well.

You're saying that it will be sort of neutral in perpetuity.

That's where we follow up and make those adjustments.

How can council sort of keep track of, you know, or distinguish between those two types of changes?

And so you get those, the ones that you're talking about that are significantly different.

Thank you.

Thank you, and just I think to clarify, to add on to Councilmember Ellison there, so in order for a reclassified position to be continued into the next budget, it needs to be brought forward as a change item in the next budget, is that correct?

in cases where departments have had to make their own underlying changes in order to bring those positions forward.

And then do you know how many have been or will be needing to be reclassified to different grades and salary schedules?

I don't have a summary number at this stage in terms of the final number of positions that we'll be talking about.

So I'm just wondering, of these 85.1 budgeted positions, how many were internally transferred with the City Council's explicit knowledge of what the existing budgeted position was, where it was being transferred to, and what it was being transferred for prior to approval to the budget?

The largest part of the documentation that was provided along with this was related to the development of the budget book that was published during the budget process last year as well as in presentations the department's brought forward to the Budget Committee at the time for discussion.

I see Councilor Tugdeye has a question, but so let me go to her quick here.

the budget book, though I don't remember during departmental presentations and when we were going over the budget that transfers between departments were made clear to this body.

And hopefully that was made clear during the budget process and the decision making process as part of last year.

I know we're short on time.

Welcome Miss Miller.

The next position I'm going to talk about is the Director of Performance Management and Innovation.

I want to thank you.

The duties of the position must involve significant discretion and substantial involvement

And they're reallocating dollars from the general fund for this position.

Ms. Miller before you go on to the next one just because we're trying to be mindful of our time and I know this last one we have some of us have seen this before if you're able to just give us some highlights on the role and then also just the findings that we're approving today would be helpful.

Again, we are requesting that you approve that this position meets the criteria as defined in section 2010 and forwarded on to Council for final approval.

Hopefully we will be done here by 2 10 so customer pain.

Could you just briefly describe why these three positions are going through this process relative to other positions in the city?

So that's why they're going through this process.

because I have some knowledge of individuals, but I'm trying to separate the people from the position right now in this question, but do we have people detailed to these three roles right now?

Not that I'm aware of.

So is there maybe the city attorney could speak to that that gap?

So the same sorts of expertise that your police chief, frankly, would have about reforms and things like that, and that position is obviously in the unclassified service as well, but that would be my interpretation.

Is there some subjectivity to that interpretation or is there like a legal term of art when we say technical expertise?

kind of gives a little bit more meat to the bones and talks about you know this kind of HR type of HR IT type of expertise and I can pull up the statute if you give me a second but I know that the intention is for these criteria to really be the same type of criteria that is applied at the state level.

Something that's more broad like the policy development would qualify.

There is no person right now working in the city in the role of

I know, Ms. Anderson, I don't know if you can speak to the other one.

to identify what type of expertise would be considered technical.

And just a quick reminder with regards to time is just to keep our questions and comments regarding to the findings here today.

that also leads itself to sharing very alarming information about Mayor Locke.

Because I want to stick to the conversation.

So you are cutting me off have we not been through this before Koski of censoring people while they're talking council members?

The city attorney to say what?

So I just want to make that clear.

so that's what I'm going to finish my comments with and as I mentioned I made the motion on the OCS and then also we'll be supporting the OPI position.

I second that motion.

Okay we have a motion on the floor that's been seconded so we

or better yet is to pick a date at some point in the future so that there's definitive awareness amongst the body, the staff, the administration as to when this matter might come back.

That is our next COW meeting and that will be after the PHS meeting where I believe we're going to be having that follow up from Dr. Oftelli.

Okay, so do we want to restate the motion?

The motion is to postpone consideration of the request for the appointed position on Director of Partnerships and Outreach for the Office of Community Safety and LIMS File 2023-00-480 to August 1, 2023 meeting of the Committee or Budget Committee.

And I think we have a second, so I'll ask the Clerk to call the roll.

Rainville?

No.

Vita?

No.

Goodman?

No.

Chiktai?

Aye.

There are five ayes and six nays.

That carries.

No that fails.

Sorry that fails.

A new motion can be made on one or all items.

Council Member Ellison.

you know I would love to see the priority be about you know how are we reforming our services how are we getting them to work better together and I feel like just this role I'm not saying it's gonna never be needed but I do feel like it's not the right time for us to be prioritizing outreach in this way and so I won't be supporting this position today if it doesn't pass I'm happy to revisit it and support it in the future but it doesn't feel like the right priority for the department right now so that's it

Thank you Vice President Palmisano

And I need a second.

Clerk, if you want to repeat that motion.

Madam Chair, my understanding is that Councilmember Palmisano has made a motion on items three through five to send them forward without recommendation to City Council.

Thank you.

If you could call the roll.

I can read the motion again, call it again and make sure that we captured the vote correctly.

Okay, so for the record we are going back to the

Are there any questions about that motion as I've stated it?

Yes, do we get an opportunity to ask questions before we take votes?

If there's a question about the motion as I've stated it, we can certainly clarify the motion, otherwise we should call the roll and accurately verify the outcome of that.

Yep, we should call it.

I have a question about the item itself, when I get an opportunity to ask.

okay so I think we have sorry we are utterly confused here here's what we're going to do yes the clerk is going to call the roll on the motion that we took and I think inaccurately recorded before we're just going to call the roll again people will restate their vote the way they wish to be recorded we will report that if there are questions further we can take those up after we've reported the roll call

Please clerk, go ahead and call the roll.

Rainville?

No.

Vita?

No.

Osman?

Aye.

Goodman?

No.

Chuktai?

Aye.

Vice Chair Palmisano?

No.

No, so there are six eyes and five days and I apologize for the incorrect recording, which means that that motion passes.

That motion was made based on the fact that the clerk incorrectly reported the first vote.

Second.

All right, I have Councilmember Chavez.

No, Councilmember Goodman, thank you.

Okay, Councilmember Goodman.

We don't need to be here to vote on any of these things.

But moving with our recommendation to stop discussion is not the way to do this today.

All right, Council Member Payne.

I think the public has a, they have a right to know the answers to these questions, and what our public thoughts are about these questions, and so I cannot support a motion to forward without recommendation, without further discussion.

Thank you, Council Member Osman.

I don't know what the process is for the city clerk, but it will be easier instead of taking the vote to clarify and ask those questions, especially if the item is, let's delay it, I want to ask.

So Council Member Osman, it is within your power as a member of the body who voted with the majority to propose reconsideration of that outcome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Thompson.

Thank you.

Council Member Wonsley.

I just wanted to provide that clarity.

I'm not seeing any further discussion and so I will ask the clerk to call the roll on the latest motion by Council Vice President Palmisano.

Correct Councilmember Payne.

No.

There are five ayes and six nays.

So that motion fails and I, oh, Council Member Goodman.

I'd like to move items four and five for approval today and call the question.

I'll ask the clerk to call the roll.

Wonsley?

Nay.

Rainville?

Aye.

Vita?

Aye.

Chuktay?

No.

There are six ayes and five nays.

I'm sure there's more to say.

Any discussion from my colleagues?

And that's my only comment.

Thank you, Council Member Ellison.

Thank you.

I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

On item number four, Councilmember Payne.

Nay.

Rainville.

Aye.

Did she say nay?

Councilmember Wonsley, what was your vote?

I said nay.

Rainville.

Aye.

Vita.

Ellison.

Osman.

Aye.

Goodman.

Aye.

Chiktai?

No.

Palmisano?

Aye.

Cherakoski?

Aye.

There's six ayes and five nays.

I will now ask the clerk to call the roll for item number five.

Osmond Aye Goodman Aye Chavez Aye Chiktai Aye Palmisano Aye Cherkoski Aye There are 11 ayes.

That carries and we have finished all business for today and so without objection I'll declare this meeting adjourned.

Here are three simple things