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Special City Council Strategic Planning Meeting Saturday, February 7, 2009 Page 4 overtime so they can complete work in a timely manner or during off-time, allowing the equipment to be up and running by shift time the following day. Street Division Mr. Schwartz advised that staff had recently had the bid opening for the 2009 maintenance materials, and anticipated presenting them and staffls recommendation to the City Council at their February 23, 2009 meeting. Mr. Schwartz advised that the bids had been disappointing, but comparable to the experiences of other communities, having not come down from previous levels. Mr. Schwartz noted that when the City had bid on 2008 materials, the firms had based those bids on 2007 prices, so the City was receiving almost adouble-hit on this bid, as those companies attempted to recover from the previous year. Mr. Schwartz advised that, given the unfavorable bids, staff was recommending, even without impacts of reduced MVHC, a reduction in sealcoat projects by 20%, reducing ice control by 10%, reducing sign maintenance by 10%, reducing pavement marking/striping by 25%, and reducing other contractual pavement and curbing repairs by 10%. Other impacts Mr. Schwartz addressed impacts of the recent hiring freeze, noting that the department had two recent retirements in the street division; currently have one military deployment, which he had just received notice that the deployment would be extended another year; two employees out on medical leave, one in the hospital and another scheduled for knee surgery. Mr. Schwartz advised that this situation, in addition to the hiring freeze, significantly impacted his department's ability to deliver major service operations in the summer; and advised that the department would need to rely on additional seasonal staff to bring the department back up to normal staffing levels. Mr. Schwartz advised that reductions in his staff would have some impact on the department's assistance to other departments (i.e., plan review; maintenance assistance). Anticipated MVHC-Specific Reduction = $71,000 Mr. Schwartz provided the following options from his perspective in addressing the additional MVHC reduction, from a hypothetical basis: • Administration/Engineering: other than staffing, noting that it was astaff--heavy budget, elimination of seasonal employees, overtime pay, reduced attendance at conferences/training opportunities. Reduce 2009 proposed construction from $5 million to $2.5 million, resulting in a 10% engineering fee internally to the department to send that construction delivery out to a consultant. Mr. Schwartz reviewed the contractual budget, as well as the beneficial value of full-service engineering in-house. ^ Streets: Reduce staffing levels further or further program reductions, with the net effect to reduce pavement conditions or response times. ^ Lighting: Shut off601ights. ^ Building Maintenance: Reduce lighting; increase/reduce heating/cooling seasonally.