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Productivity Committee Minutes 05/24/2005 COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT PRODUCTIVITY COMMITTEE Minutes—May 24, 2005; 9 a.m. Members Present: Syd Blum,Dex Groose, Steve Harrison, Matt Hudson, Joe Swaja and JimVanFleet, Janet Vasey Members Absent(Excused): John Barlow, Stan Farnham,Helen Philbin Liaison: Commissioner Halas was present. Staff Present: Len Price, Administrator, Administrative Services Division; Amy Patterson, Impact Fee Manager, Community Development; the following appeared from the Sheriff's Office: Sheriff Don Hunter,Kevin Rambosk, Scott Salley, Tim Guerrette (Youth& Gangs), Stephanie Spell (Communications), Al Beatty(911), Chris Freeman(Jail), Joe Bastys (Jail Commander), Jim Bloom (Parole & Special Operations), Jean Myers (Budget Manager), Jamie Mosbach(Planning&Research) and Carol Golightly(Finance Director); Debbie Wight, Assistant to the County Manager; and Barbetta Hutchinson, Office of Management and Budget. I. Introduction: Opening Remarks—There being a quorum, Joe Swaja, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. Joe addressed the group and said this meeting is to finalize their review of the FY 06 Sheriff's budget. Kevin Rambosk asked to give a presentation to the committee prior to the committee making any recommendations. II. Old Business: Presentation by Sheriff's Office— Kevin thanked the committee for the opportunity to give the presentation. An overview notebook was prepared and passed out to the group which included the state of the agency recap and the budget position paper. He also included report from the Productivity Committee several years ago that recommended the expansion of the aviation program. The Sheriff reviewed corrections, operations and administration policies. Janet asked when the budget will be available and was given the answer of June 1. Sheriff Hunter introduced his staff and gave an overview of their positions. The committee introduced themselves as well. The Sheriff proceeded to give an overview of the issues of his office. He emphasized that Collier County cannot be compared to other benchmark counties because of the uniqueness of the County. The Sheriff gave a review of the responsibilities that are mandated by law and the statutes that rule them. During his presentation, the committee members had the opportunity to ask questions of the individuals responsible for specific operational areas. The Sheriff stressed his concern about planning, critical needs and trying to fit his budget to actual service demands. The Sheriff said before establishing policy on allocation of budget funds, and setting the millage rate,why not review the issues affecting the county, do planning work,talk about critical needs, talk about what is impacting government service and try to fit budgets to actual service demands. Page 1 of 4 Chris Freeman discussed the jail. The jail is currently servicing 1,250 inmates on weekends in a jail with the capacity of 307. Pictures were shown of overcrowded conditions with inmates sleeping on the floors. The Sheriff compared incarceration rates to crime rates. Currently, 47% of our inmates are probation violators. These inmates have committed crimes,but have been allowed to go back out onto the streets. The Sheriff feels if he targets the highly active career criminals and puts them in jail, they are not out on the streets to commit future crimes. The gang situation was discussed and the importance of putting an end to gang growth was emphasized. The point was made that gang members are actively sought and incarcerated in an effort to deter crime. Steve asked if we housed inmates from other jurisdictions. Chris responded by saying that occasionally we do, but not on a regular basis. In return, we ask surrounding communities to hold some of our violators on occasion. Deportation candidates are also held in the jail,however their criminal cases have to run through the system before they can be deported. There are also joint efforts between Immigration and law enforcement to arrest and deport unlawful individuals. A deputy also said that lawful pressure is placed on offenders trying to get them to leave the county or until they are incarcerated for unlawful activity. Chris spoke about revenues the Sheriff received(approximately$30,000 per month) from the inmates such as the $20 admission fee, commissary monies,phone dollars and subsistence fees of$1 a day. These monies are used to supply buses,provide sports equipment and to build the visitation center. Carol Golightly reviewed the FY 06 budget and the increase over last year and how it relates to personal services, increase in retirement rates and the 57 positions from last year that need to be phased in this year. She also reviewed the additional $10M for grant positions and expanded corrections and law enforcement positions. The grant funding was discussed and Jean Myers said that the Sheriff does not know if they will get the grant funding for this year, and the money is therefore added into the number for now,but that could change if the grant money is awarded. -*Janet Vasey asked for a listing of all grant positions, the date the grant expires for each and where exactly each grant position is located. Staffing was discussed. A professional staffing expert is doing a staffing model and will report to the Sheriff upon completion. The recommendation will be taken into consideration when filling positions within the Sheriff's Office. The advantages of working for the Collier County Sheriff s Office were outlined by those in attendance. Things such as tasers, helicopter units, absence of union dues, a good benefit plan, and the take-home vehicle policy are all plusses when looking for employment. However, housing is an issue because 180 of the Sheriffs employees live outside Collier County. The Sheriff also told the committee about his emergency plan, terrorism prevention critical site monitoring and school program. Specialized equipment is carried by the deputy into the school every day and the remainder of the equipment is kept close by in their car in case of serious incident. The Sheriff reminded the members that the last two budgets have been driven primarily by growth and the opening of the new jail. He asked the committee for their support in his budget request with the promise that he would continue to work on efficiency measures. He asked the committee for some time to discover efficiencies—time for the captains and commanders to work things out in the reorganization. Jean Myer added that they are still waiting for the State Legislature to put out retirement numbers for next year,which could mean a dramatic difference in the budget number. Janet asked when the governor would sign the document and the answer was unknown. The amount of overtime being worked by selected individuals was discussed. The Sheriff informed the group about how the knowledge base of the deputy also plays into the fact of who gets the overtime. Jean said there was a policy in place that took into consideration the lowest paid,most qualified person Page 2 of 4 for overtime hours. Dex suggested that there be a questionnaire to be filled out by all deputies to inform supervision who would like overtime and who would not. Steve asked the Sheriff about the 300,000 hours of overtime premiums throughout the year. The Sheriff responded that in addition to unknown events that take place, those hours also include court time,training time, family leave, extended leave, and Worker's Compensation leave. This means the Sheriff's Office has to spend overtime hours to replace the deputies who are occupied doing all those other things. Dex suggested that overtime not be given to those employees that are close to retirement. The Sheriff said he cannot legally exclude the older deputies,but he does try to get the lesser-paid deputies to take the overtime. Chris said that he micromanages every schedule in order to insure the lesser paid deputies are scheduled for overtime. Janet asked about the pay raise of 5.65% for 2006 and how does it relate to the 3%pay raise that is effective this month. Carol answered by saying that the 3% cost of living rate is effective May 17 and will not be re-issued in October. In October they will be on the "Step Plan." The next raise will be 2.7% on the individual's anniversary date. Joe thanked the Sheriff and his office for the presentation. He also complimented Kevin Rambosk on providing his expertise and cooperation during the Sheriff's budget review. Recap by Productivity Committee Members—Joe Swaja wrote up a list of the following suggestions and observations from the committee members regarding the Sheriffs budget. Before Janet had to leave she mentioned the retirement issue. She also asked if they could work on some sort of housing down payment incentive to get employees into the county. There was discussion on the following issues: The low visibility of Hispanics in the workforce; Jim VanFleet suggested that the Sheriffs Office work in creating a high school club such as "Future Law Enforcement Workers"; Dex suggested that the Sheriff should evaluate the number of deputies in the schools; Joe said the deputies are not in the schools to discipline—they are just there to enforce the law; Steve said he needs more information about the reorganization in order to make a decision; Dex questioned the calls handled in the dispatch area. Dex suggested that the committee needs to identify the issues and put together a recommendation. Joe wrote ideas from the members as their ideas came up. Steve said to include detail utilization of the officers; review policies on paid leaves; civilianizing the workforce; reducing paperwork—dictating and transcribing notes; actively recruit resident Hispanics; cross-training and flex-staffing programs; language programs. Dex said to adjust the communications center to normalize workload; for corrections—use one deputy for headcount; target a 35%reduction in medical services; utilize part-time homemakers or residents for non-certified positions; identical services provided at the old and new jail should be done with no increase in staff; establish standards for typical medical waiting time like private sector; operations—adjust staffing of patrols to optimize service calls per deputy; have standards for workload by shift and how many deputies respond to incidents; have two deputies per vehicle to reduce operating costs and need for backup; assign fuel economy goals for deputies; assign patrol vehicles only to those officers whose primary duty is patrol—all others can obtain a pool vehicle; have deputies assigned at a 1/1000 of population; review aviation logs for frequency use and value per incident; Matt asked the question which type of methodology should be used—either ratio per population or number of service call ratio; define a role for the deputy—does he have too much to do?; baliffs vehicle take-home policy should be reviewed; hybrid vehicle usage should be investigated; in the administrative area— bring health insurance deductibles and co-pays down to what the rest of the county does; overtime should be monitored in all areas, not just corrections; spread overtime throughout the organization instead of giving all the overtime to the ones closest to retirement; lease more technology instead of Page 3 of 4 • purchasing; maintenance cost—in house or contracted out; maintenance pool should never be more than 15% of the vehicles; increase number of red-light tickets; increase handicapped parking violations; need verification for the numbers of violation tickets; consolidate recruitment and expand centralized recruitment sites and job fairs; are certification costs justified?; investigate home office opportunities; increase use of the in-car technology; absorb the staffing required through attrition; include Benefits Subcommittee recommendations; eliminate the pie concept as far as the budget dollar allocations are concerned;total budget for FY 06 should be last year's budget plus 4%for a total of $128 million. Dex volunteered to write up a draft of the recommendations and send them to Debbie. Debbie will forward them to the committee members for their review before the next committee meeting scheduled May 27. Next Meeting: The next meeting of the Productivity Committee is scheduled for Friday, May 27 at 9:00 a.m. to finalize the Sheriff's budget review report to be submitted to the County Manager. This meeting will be held in the Legislative Conference Room on the 2nd floor of the W. Harmon Turner Building (Administration Building F). Page 4 of 4