Minutes 04/02/2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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April 2, 2013 information about these bonds in a number of public meetings between January and March, 2013. The City is moving forward with issuing Pension Obligation Bonds and expects to close on a bond deal by the end of June. Eliminating the Social Security Offset creates an actuarial liability of $21 million; in order to fund this liability, the pension obligation bond issue will include this additional amount. Raises for Employees and Retirees Our employees are our most important asset. They ensure that our residents receive a high level of customer service and responsiveness. As a result of the severe economic downturn, our general employees have not had a raise for the past four fiscal years. During that same time period, we implemented a new pay plan for our sworn Police and Fire employees; with this new pay plan, we have given our sworn public safety officers pay increases each year except for Fiscal Year 2011-2012 and Fiscal Year 2012-2013. This Budget proposes a three percent increase for general wage employees effective July 1, 2013. The State Budget includes a three percent raise for Constitutional Offices, effective August 1, 2013 with the State Compensation Board paying for the State portion of that cost. However, in order to be consistent with the date that our general employees will receive their increase, I am proposing that all of the Constitutional Officers and their employees receive the three percent increase on July 1. The Constitutional Officers and their employees provide a valuable service to our citizens, and we should compensate them for their outstanding service. The budget also reinstates step increases for Sworn Police and Fire employees, which were suspended in Fiscal Year 2012-2013. Just as important as taking care of our current employees, we must recognize the financial needs of our retirees -those persons who devoted a good part of their lives to the betterment of our City. In this regard, this budget includes a 1.5% Cost of Living increase for retirees of the PSRS and F&P plans. As for our pay plan structure for our general employees, in addition to not giving our general employees a pay increase over the past four years, we also have not adjusted the structure of our pay plan as it relates to the marketplace. Consequently, our pay structure is approximately four percent below that of the average in the marketplace. The general wage increase that I am recommending with this budget does not adjust the structure of the pay plan for our general employees as it relates to the marketplace. We will study the relationship of the competitiveness of our pay plan with the start of Fiscal Year 2013-2014, and we will provide you with the results of our study and recommendations during the course of the budget year. Quality Service Delivery Over the past several years, the City has maintained a high number of vacancies in departments in an effort to make sure that expenditures remained within available revenues. This has had a crippling affect on departments hindering them from effectively accomplishing their missions. As recent as December, 2012, approximately one-fifth of our budgeted positions were vacant. If we are going to be successful in delivering high quality services to Portsmouth residents, then it is vital that departments have the appropriate complement of staff. I began authorizing departments to fill needed vacant positions in December, and we will continue to fill mission critical vacancies in a timely manner. Prior year budgets included a five percent vacancy factor. This budget eliminates the vacancy factor for the Constitutional Offices because they do not generate vacancy savings due to the nature of the funding that they receive from the State. In future budgets, we should consider lowering the vacancy factor to reflect departments' actual experience now that positions are being filled more quickly. In addition to filling key vacant positions, we also evaluated whether or not we could eliminate certain long standing vacant positions. There are two departments, Permits and Inspections and Marketing and Communications, where positions are permanently