FIN 2021-04-26 Item 1C - Discussion - Prioritizing Service Level Increases

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INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 9 Appendix — Departmental Service Reduction Details City Council: The City Council reduced travel, conferences, and training support and other supplies. Mayor: The Mayor's department reduced service levels in several ways. One of the significant cuts was to the Commute Trip Reduction Program, an employee incentive program that provided employees an ORCA card for use of transit or monetary incentives for use of alternate modes of transportation (carpooling, walking, biking etc.) This program cut was in addition to the furloughs and pay reductions employees took in 2020. The SeeClickFix program was also eliminated, which provided the general public with a convenient tool to notify City staff of concerns in and around the City. Reinstatement of SeeClickFix would cost considerably more than what the City had previously paid. The City is looking at the possibility of utilizing TRAKiT as a community response tool. Training registrations and travel budgets were also significantly reduced limiting the ability to attend conferences and other relevant training opportunities. Funding was also removed for employee recognition, survey initiatives and sponsorship of chamber events. In the Economic Development Division, part time staffing was eliminated and other services were reduced which limits research and attracting development. Currently, there is no budget to create an economic development plan. Funding for an economic development plan would enable the City to hire outside expertise, increase the Plan's scope, and significantly expand community outreach in the development of the Plan. Administrative Services: All extra labor has been eliminated from this department. The direct impact is on the turnaround time for public records requests. Additionally, staff has taken on additional work that was performed by extra labor staff, resulting in slower turnround time on contracts and other documents and services in the City Clerk's office and continued degraded services in TIS. Funding for the Community Connectors program has also been removed. The program has been on hiatus since 2019 due the partner agency's lack of capacity. Staff would bring the program back but it would look a bit different. Once change is that no outside resources would be utilized. Funding was also removed for training which inhibits staff the ability to access new best practices. Professional services was reduced which results in less funds for city-wide trainings and other human resources related programs such as investigations and labor- management support. TIS has one position frozen. In addition, reductions in capital expenses, professional services, training, travel, and supplies were taken. Some of these, such as reduction in Seamless Docs and Sharegate services will have impacts on all departments. Finance: 55