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<br />39 <br /> <br />TUESDAY <br /> <br />JUNE 7, 1977 <br /> <br />a poor yardstick to measure the growth in the City Budget because many of the <br />significant increases or decreases in expenditures have absolutely nothing to <br />do with the inflation rate. Examples are expenditures for Aid to Dependent <br />Children, Revenue Sharing Funds used for capital projects, CETA expenditures, <br />Debt Service Payments and cost of purchased power from APCO. Each of these <br />items has a significant inpact on the City Budget and each has nothing to do <br />with the rate of inflation. In fact, some of these expenditures are completely <br />off set by revenues other than local funds. <br /> <br />,,- <br /> <br />As I see it, there are only two good measures of a sound city budget: (1) whether <br />or not expenses which recur year after year are funded by revenues which recur <br />year after year; (2) whether or not conservative estimates of revenues and expenses <br />are used so as to avoid a year-end deficit. <br /> <br />Second, I feel that the City Employees should be awarded a salary increase <br />because of their combined efforts to hold budget requests down, to spend less <br />than council budgeted, and to do their jobs well, all of which helped to avoid <br />a tax increase next year. I think they should be adequately compensated for <br />these efforts. <br /> <br />Third, I think that a Personnel Manager and Grants Coordinator will save the <br />citizens money through increased employee productivity and through increased <br />revenues. As I see it, someone should be vested with these responsibilities <br />either through an organizational change or through hiring a new person. <br /> <br />Mr. West states that he "sees no reason why each department head cannot <br />act as a personnel chief for his own department". This is exactly what the <br />City is doing now; each department head acts as a Personnel Manager, and I am <br />not satisified that the City is adhering to fundamentally sound and proven <br />personnel principles. The City employs close to 300 people and no one person <br />is vested with the responsibility of planning, organizing and controlling <br />personnel on a centralized basis which I feel will produce more efficient <br />government. <br /> <br />Presently, there is no person responsible for coordinating personnel <br />policies between departments. There is no secretary-pooling, no coordinated <br />training, indoctrination, exit-interviews, etc. <br /> <br />The City is currently getting into unemployment compensation insurance <br />which we did not have to pay in the past, and I think a personnel manager <br />can administer this job centrally. <br /> <br />In addition, I feel the Personnel Manager can serve as an intermediary <br />at all levels of the newly adopted grievance procedure. <br /> <br />Council recently approved a merit-increase compensation plan for <br />employees, yet the City does not have one person to make sure that the plan <br />is administered fairly throughout the organization. <br />