City of Yuma down 114 positions

The city of Yuma is a much leaner municipality with 114 fewer full-time employees than it had a year ago.

With the exception of two layoffs, those positions were all vacated through resignations or retirements, City Administrator Mark Watson said during an interview Monday with the Yuma Sun.

And the number is a fluid one as more people are taking advantage of an early retirement program offered by the city, said Jack Dodd, human resources manager. Through that program, the city is agreeing to pay for 18 months of COBRA health insurance premiums of long-time employees who are near retirement if they retire by the end of April.

That's still a big savings for the city because it no longer has to pay them wages, he noted.

In the two weeks since the program was unveiled, 10 people have chosen to take advantage of the program, Dodd said.

"At the strategic level, we knew we were entering a three-year-period of downturn in revenue," Watson said. "We knew we would get hit hard."

With 80 percent of the general fund going to payroll, it was inevitable that staffing costs would need to be reduced.

"But the council, in particular the past council, indicated it didn't want any layoffs," Watson said.

So the city instead has focused its efforts on eliminating positions through attrition.

In the last year, Watson said, the city has reduced its workforce by 11 percent from a peak of 1,003 full-time positions on July 1, 2009.

"As of today," Watson said, "114 positions are gone. We're now below 2005 levels."

That has sometimes required a shift in employees, though, to ensure that critical services are still being provided for the community, he said.

For example, the city is required to have someone test the water at the water treatment plants several times a day, he said. "Someone has to do that duty."

Other programs are nice but they're not critical, Watson said. "They had been important functions but they're not necessary to the city's mission."

In other cases, there's less demand for a service because of the economic downturn, Dodd said. Such was the case with the second real estate position, which was no longer needed because the city wasn't proceeding with street improvement projects that would have required the purchase of property.

On the other hand, when a critical position opens up, the city is seeking to fill them internally in hopes of saving someone's job.

"There's a great opportunity for staff to look at new careers," Watson said. "They can develop new skills and be trained for new job responsibilities."

A clerk whose position is being eliminated trains to become a dispatcher; the photographer in the communications department is now working as an evidence custodian in the evidence room at the Yuma Police Department; someone who had been mowing lawns is now working at the Agua Viva Water Plant.

"If a duty isn't needed, it's beneficial to everyone to move them to other critical positions, "Dodd said. "It has nothing to do with the individual. We're moving the person to a more essential position. We've had to twist some arms to make the move, but they still have a job."

Watson remarked that "statistically across the country things are just horrible. I think we've done well as we've tried to address where we're going methodically."

The city early instituted a hiring freeze except for essential positions and city employees have not had a wage increase since July 2008, Dodd said.

And a furlough program was begun this fiscal year. Dodd noted that one furlough day taken by all city employees saves $175,000. That means saved jobs.

Watson said an across-the-board pay cut was considered but decided against. One reason was to try to protect employees pensions. The other is that studies show the city already is lagging behind the market salary average by 9 percent. A pay cut would make the city even less competitive.

The pain is far from over, Watson noted. Sales tax revenue continues to plummet, slowed development activity has reduced revenue from building fees, and the city already knows it will receive $1 million less next fiscal year from the state's shared revenue for income taxes.

"That $1 million is 50 positions," he said. "We can't lay off everyone."

One idea on the table is the institution of a $5 fee for residential trash collection that is expected to bring in $1 million, he said.

"Those are the kinds of decisions the council will have to make," he concluded.

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Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.

This story was updated Tuesday, March 9, to reflect corrections on health care coverage and the title of transferred employee.