The White Oaks Blog

Legacy Partners Updates San Carlos on Transit Village Plans.

Chuck Gillooley — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:27:59 +0000

Informational Meeting.

Last week, in a meeting hosted by the San Carlos Chamber of Commerce, representatives from Legacy Partners presented an update to their vision of the San Carlos Transit Village. For those of you not familiar with the Transit Village, it’s a concept being considered by the City of San Carlos to significantly modify the land on both sides of the historic train depot in San Carlos by adding retail space, high-end residential rental units, and additional parking. Legacy Partners was chosen by the City of San Carlos as the lead developer for this concept.

For more information, visit the City of San Carlos page for this: San Carlos Transit Village.

Updated Presentation.

In last week’s meeting, which was attended by about 30-40 people (including 4 of the 5 City Council members, the City Manager and the Asst. City Manager), Legacy Partners gave a fairly detailed presentation on their vision of the Transit Village, as well as any changes from previous specifications. For example, the number of luxury rental units in the concept dropped to 280 units. There was consternation expressed by representatives of the Greater East Side San Carlos group for lack of any mention of the impact to the residents in Clearfield Park in their presentation.

Timing for this project (if it even moves forward) is still pretty far out on the horizon. The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) still needs to be completed, discussed, and approved before much else can happen. Consequently, it’s going to be a few years before the first shovel of dirt is turned….if it happens at all.

Legacy Partners was nice enough to provide me with a copy of their presentation to post on the site. Click here to download it: Legacy Partners; San Carlos Transit Village 3-16

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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

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It’s Time to Take Another Look at Budget Cuts in San Carlos.

Chuck Gillooley — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:11:04 +0000

The “Other” Option.

Last night, after listening to nearly two hours of public commentary which was unanimously and vehemently against outsourcing the San Carlos Police and Fire services, the City Council of San Carlos nonetheless advised the City Manager’s staff to continue investigating outsourcing as the primary option for balancing the budget in San Carlos. (It makes one wonder what the purpose of speaking at the Council meeting accomplishes?) But ironically, continuing to investigate this option is probably not a bad idea, because I believe they will find that cost savings that are being touted are severely overestimated, in part because they’re being gleaned from very preliminary proposals from both the Sheriff’s office and Cal Fire — AND because the level of service outlined in both proposals are not the same level of service that we have today. It will be interesting to see what the savings really look like when a more accurate comparison is done. Apples to apples.

But what about the “other” path that was proposed by the City Manager two weeks ago — the path that called for “cuts across the board,” instead of outsourcing Fire and Police Departments? After all, the whole reason that outsourcing is being so heavily pushed by the City was to avoid the draconian cuts that were proposed in this path. But have we given up on looking into budget cuts? I hope not, because on further analysis of what has been done to date, it’s very evident that more work needs to be done.

Flatter, not Fatter.

I have been through enough Silicon Valley re-organizations to know that cost savings are achieved in a re-org by “flattening” an organization. In other words, you end up having more employees reporting to fewer managers. It’s called efficiency, and it’s a key reason why middle-level managers are always a prime target during layoffs.

But San Carlos resident Mark Olbert did a very interesting side-by-side analysis that compares the City staffing as it stands today, versus what it would look like after the cuts outlined in the budget cut path. What he found is that was that the ratio of employees to managers actually decreases under the new proposal — or, in other words, our City becomes more top-heavy, not less. In his analysis, he refers to “span of control” as roughly the ratio of non-management employees versus supervisors. Here is what he found:

Span of control before proposed cuts in Option 1: 4.3
Span of control after proposed cuts in Option 1: 3.5
Ideal ratio of employees/per manager: 6-7
Another way of looking at the numbers is that approximately 23% of City employees had management/supervisor responsibility before the cuts. After the cuts, that number rises to 28%.

Here’s a summary of his analysis: City Staffing

What does this analysis tell us? First, even before a single cut is made, our current staffing level is already too top-heavy. A number of 4.3 is below what many believe is an optimal efficiency range for an organization of this size. Second, the cuts that Staff has proposed take us in the wrong direction — there are clearly more “worker bees” being cut than supervisors.

A More Aggressive Approach to Cost Cutting.

Last night, Council Member Matt Grocott presented an option that calls for across the board salary cuts for City management, as well as the elimination of the Assistant City Manager and Redevelopment Housing Manager positions. According to Mr. Grocott, no other positions would need to be eliminated and no closures or reduced services would be recommended under this plan.

Here are more details on his plan: City of SC Budget Proposal

This is a much more radical and aggressive approach to solving the budget gap, but to my knowledge it’s the first time that management pay scale has been discussed in any detail so far.

The Bottom Line

Both scenarios above make it glaringly obvious that if we’re serious about fixing our budget problem, we need to take a MUCH closer look at how our current city government is organized. And perhaps that “look” needs to happen from an impartial source outside of the City Manager’s Office. It’s probably not fair to ask the City Manager to proactively take money out of his own pocket, or to re-organize his direct circle of influence. But there are excellent consultants out there who specialize in civic organizational structure — ones that can take an impartial view of at what we have now, and create a more efficient organizational structure — something with a higher “span of control.” Who knows, perhaps we’ve already done this?

But we owe it to our Police, Firefighters, and Parks people to take this inward look at ourselves. Because right now, the burden of balancing the budget is still 100% on their shoulders.

Rating: 7.9/10 (9 votes cast)

San Carlos Police Officers Association Gives Official “Thumbs Down” to Outsourcing.

Chuck Gillooley — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:24:12 +0000

Press Release

In a press release issued this morning, the San Carlos Police Officers Association gave a resounding thumbs-down to the proposal that was submitted by the City Manager of San Carlos that recommends outsourcing the police service in San Carlos to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. The San Carlos POA has thoroughly reviewed the proposal that was submitted by the Sheriff’s Department before issuing this press release. To download a copy of this release, click here: San Carlos POA Press Release, or see the full content of the press release at the bottom of this post.

A Refreshing Perspective.

Now, before everyone jumps on the POA’s position as being self-serving, it’s important to note that these officers are turning down a significant raise in pay and possibly upward career mobility that working for the Sheriff’s Department would provide. When was the last time you saw a professional athlete turn down more pay and more opportunity to stay with their current team? Hmmm.

Here’s the press release in its entirety

********FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE********

From San Carlos Police Officers Association

March 19, 2010

San Carlos Police Officers Association Denounces Proposed “Outsourcing” Deal With San Mateo County Sheriff

At the request of San Carlos City Manager Mark Weiss, the San Mateo County Sheriff has submitted a proposal to take over policing services in San Carlos. It is posted on the City of San Carlos website. As you read into it, you can see they are proposing to save the city 3.5 million dollars by cutting the police services by almost half. The proposal assigns a total of 14 deputies to the City of San Carlos to replace the current 30 officers San Carlos now uses to police the city. At the same time the Sheriff claims that police services will not be reduced. How can anyone even believe that for a minute?

The bottom line upfront is one of the highest paid city management teams in San Mateo County has failed to do their jobs and now they want a do over, at the expense of the citizens and the dedicated employees of the San Carlos Police Department.

The San Carlos Police Department has endured budget cuts over the last 10 years that has brought it to its current staffing level of 30, down from 38. San Carlos Police Chief Greg Rothaus was recently asked to propose 10% and 20% cuts for the upcoming budget. The Chief proposed these cuts but also stated that reducing the level of staffing below 25 officers becomes “draconian” and the department could not function. With the current staffing of 30 personnel, the San Carlos Police Department has 1.1 officers per capita, less than half of the national average of 2.4. In a recent report to the city Council “The Dashboard”, Chief Rothaus compared San Carlos against four benchmark cities of comparable size; Belmont, Foster City, Burlingame and Los Gatos. The report, available at the San Carlos Police website, showed that San Carlos Police, although lower in officers per capita and budget then the benchmark cities, outperformed them in property crime clearance rates, burglary clearance rates, and violent crime clearance rates.

Under the Sheriff’s proposal, they will provide only 12 deputies for patrol, 1 traffic unit and 1 Detective for the entire city. This is compared with San Carlos’s current manning of five Sergeants, three Detectives, one Motorcycle Unit (full time), one Motorcycle Unit (part time), fourteen officers assigned to Patrol, two K-9 Officers assigned to Patrol, two Police Service Techs, three Community Service Officers all assigned to Patrol and two Police Service Techs assigned to Detectives.

Knowing what we now know, many things become clear. The problem is not the police department’s budget or their performance. Their budget is clearly lower than their counterparts per capita and they still outperform. They have proven they can do more with less. The problem is not the employees of the police department because despite being the lowest paid in the county, the still outperform. The problem is at the top.

The San Carlos City Management team, has failed to bring the budget challenges of the City of San Carlos under control. They have failed to do their job. How is it that other cities are able to deal with the current recession but San Carlos has not? That is because of leadership.

The City Manager has now concocted this outsourcing of public safety idea so in his own words, “San Carlos can hit the reset button.” To make it more palatable, he has told the city council and citizens that the only alternative is to make dramatic cuts to parks and other services, which is the part of the city they interact with most. He is using his own version of “fear” to push his outsourcing idea and hit the reset button. For all this, he is one of the highest paid city managers in San Mateo County. Maybe we should look at outsourcing his job?

Ken Castle, a San Carlos resident, recently submitted a proposal of outsourcing other city services that has been done by several cities successfully, as well as ideas on how to keep parks open. These were not given the time of day because it would have caused somebody to do some work. Instead they have someone call the Sheriff’s office and ask them to submit a proposal. No work involved except a fancy smoke and mirrors PowerPoint presentation for the city council that showed San Carlos is doomed if they do not follow the City Manager’s advice.

The citizens of San Carlos need to slow down the process so that ALL viable options should be looked at in depth, nothing from the City Manager’s office should be taken at face value. City Manager Weiss and Mayor Randy Royce seem to be in such a big hurry to outsource public safety; that it better make people sit up and wonder why.

Take the most economical and productive department in the city, in comparison to their counterparts, and outsource it to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s office. Seems like the city manager’s office is trying to take the easy way out and get that do over.

If City Manager Mark Weiss truly cared about the safety and welfare of the citizens in San Carlos he would be asking “What are the property crime clearance rates, burglary clearance rates and violent crime clearance rates of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s office?”

According to San Carlos Councilman Andy Klein, the outsourcing of police services will never take place because he places three conditions on it; the level of service must be equal to or greater than our current level of service at a lower cost, we must have an iron clad, transparent agreement that does not come back to haunt us as the years go by and whichever agency we retain must be willing to engage our citizens and be willing to be flexible enough to meet our ever changing needs.

Just the fact that the level of service must be greater or equal has not yet even been looked into. Just on face value anyone can see that 14 deputies are not going to do the same job as 30 police officers, it is not going to happen. In regards to an ironclad agreement that is transparent, that also needs to be drilled down into. On the cover letter from Undersheriff Carlos Bolanos to San Carlos Administrative Services Director Jeff Maltbie, Bolanos states “Our contract includes cost of living adjustments, which cap any possible increases at 6%.” Possible increases? That means this agreement can go up by 18% over three years? I am not sure but it this what Councilman Klein is referring to when he says transparent? What happens when the first contract year is up, the City of San Carlos no longer has a police department and is dependent on the Sheriff’s office and the Sheriff decides to increase the agreement by 2 million dollars to try and close their budget gap?

Citizens need to hold the city accountable and ask the right questions. Please join the hardworking police officers and firefighters of San Carlos at the City Council meeting on Monday March 22, 2010 and hold the city leadership and city council accountable. The meeting will take place at the City Council chambers at 600 Elm Street in San Carlos at 6:00pm.

Point of Contacts for this Press Release:

San Carlos Police Officers Association President Gil Granado (510) 377-8062

San Carlos Police Officers Association Vice President Suzanne Sheppard (408) 857-1519

********FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE********

Rating: 5.5/10 (10 votes cast)

A Tough Day for the San Carlos School District…

Chuck Gillooley — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:04:02 +0000

Reductions and Termination Notices.

Last night the San Carlos School Board voted to accept the recommendation to send out potential termination/reduction notices to approximately 28 certificated employees in the school district. Even though 28 staff will receive notifications, the net impact to the District will be the possible loss of up to 18.5 Full-Time Employee (FTE) positions. The discrepancy in numbers arises since some of the positions that are impacted are part-time positions, and others are reductions in hours rather than complete eliminations. This recommendation was made as the District struggles to close a budget gap that is estimated to be between $1.6M-$2.2M.

Here’s a copy of the resolution which discusses the positions in more detail: San Carlos School District Reductions

Superintendent Dr. Craig Baker issued an email today that did a very good job of clarifying what these notifications actually entail:

“By law, if a school district is even considering reducing or eliminating a position currently occupied by a “certificated” employee (which includes teachers), the district must give notice to that teacher by March 15th of the prior school year. Even though these are commonly referred to as “pink slips,” they are not termination notices. Rather, they are a notification that the District may eliminate/reduce a certificated employee’s position for the following school year. The District can rescind these notices at any time, as happened last year after the Measure B parcel tax was passed. However, the law is very clear—if a school district does not deliver these potential termination notices by March 15th, it cannot eliminate those positions for the following school year, regardless of how necessary that might be to balance the budget.”

Tough Losses.

San Carlos has always been known as having one of the top public school districts on the San Francisco Peninsula, and if these positions are indeed lost it will be felt throughout the District. More details about this staff reduction will certainly follow in the upcoming days, but for now it’s a tough day for everyone involve in the San Carlos School District.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Breaking News: School District Officially Changes San Carlos Elementary School Boundaries.

“Spotlight on San Carlos” Interview Series: San Carlos Police Officer’s Association.

Chuck Gillooley — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:29:29 +0000

Public Safety – A Hot Topic.

The San Carlos Police Department has been in the news quite a bit these past few weeks, but not for reasons you might expect. Last week, the City Manager of San Carlos announced that his “preferred path” to balance the City’s budget calls for outsourcing the law enforcement responsibility in San Carlos to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. (The other part of this proposal is to turn the Fire Department responsibilities to Cal Fire, but that will be addressed in a different segment.)

This announcement has raised major concerns within the Police ranks, as well as with the citizens of San Carlos — and rightfully so. If you attended last night’s fantastic Police Town Hall Meeting, you saw the statistics first-hand – San Carlos has one of the best police departments on the Peninsula, hands down. So while the cost savings that the City Manager is proposing may look enticing on paper, there are far too many questions that need to be answered before any judgment should be rendered on this proposal. One thing is for certain — ANY proposal needs to maintain this level of service, or it won’t be a good deal for San Carlos.

Interview: The San Carlos Police Officer’s Association.

This week’s guest on Spotlight on San Carlos is Suzanne Sheppard, Vice President of the San Carlos Police Office’s Association. In this interview, we discuss topics ranging from current staffing challenges in the department, to the latest budget proposal. Click the play button below to hear the interview:

(If you’re reading this on email, click on this link to access the interview: Interview — San Carlos POA)

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

San Carlos City Manager Presents Two Paths to Close Budget Gap.

Chuck Gillooley — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:39:36 +0000

Two Options Proposed.

Late today, the City of San Carlos issued a press release that outlines the two paths that are now being considered to close the city’s current $3.5M budget gap. While the two options are quickly outlined in the City Budget Overview from the city website, they will be discussed in much more detail in the upcoming City Council Budget Workshop that will be held next Saturday, March 13 at 12:00 at the San Carlos Library. But even with few details to draw from, one thing is very evident — both options take radically different approaches to solving the budget deficit.

The City’s “Preferred” Path: Outsource Fire and Police Services.

You may have heard rumors to the effect that the City was considering outsourcing the Fire Department services to Cal Fire, and the Police Department services to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. Well, these are no longer rumors – in today’s press release, City Manager Mark Weiss left no doubt that this is his “preferred path” to closing the budget deficit, since it accounts for $3M-$6M in potential savings. This proposal also calls for outsourcing park maintenance, and for the installation of parking meters downtown for an additional savings of up to $500K.

The Other Path: Cuts Across the Board.

The second option that is being considered is essentially an aggregation of the cuts that were proposed earlier in the 10%/20% budget reduction exercises that were conducted a few months back by each of the key departments. The press release has more details, but some of the major elements of this proposal include:

Eliminate 9 full-time City positions.
Close Youth Center and Laureola Building.
Eliminate 2 full-time police positions, and numerous part-time positions.

The press release is careful to state that this is only a “partial listing of anticipated program impacts”, which implies that more “program impacts” (aka cuts) are possible.

What Do You Think?

It’s important to remember that more details on both proposals will (hopefully) be forthcoming in the near future. But based on what you see so far, what are your thoughts? While the Fire and Police Departments account for nearly 60% of the total budget, is it fair to pin them with 100% of the responsibility to fix the budget? How do you feel about outsourcing these vital services? Do you want the San Mateo County Sheriff’s office to be responsible for the public safety of San Carlos?

Make your opinion heard. Cast your vote in the poll below…

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

or feel free to leave a comment to this post.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

“Spotlight on San Carlos” Interview Series: City Councilman Andy Klein.

Chuck Gillooley — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:55:34 +0000

A New Feature!

I am pleased to announce a cool new addition to the White Oaks Blog – the “Spotlight on San Carlos”. The Spotlight will feature a series of 1:1 interviews with people who have an impact on our lives daily lives in San Carlos; whether they are civic leaders, business owners, educators, or just a surprise guest or two. It’s a feature that’s exclusive to the White Oaks Blog, and I hope you enjoy it.

Our First Guest: Andy Klein.

Andy Klein is the newest member of the San Carlos City Council. In a relatively short time on the Council, Andy has already had to tackle a number of issues that are critical to the future of San Carlos — most notably the budget deficit. Andy was gracious enough to take time out of his busy day to chat with the White Oaks Blog. Here’s the interview:

(Note: for those of you who subscribe to the blog via email, you’ll need to either visit the site directly to hear the interview on the audio player, or you can download it directly by clicking here: Andy Klein Interview)

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

“Spotlight on San Carlos” Interview Series: San Carlos Police Officer’s Association.

The White Oaks Blog

Legacy Partners Updates San Carlos on Transit Village Plans.

Informational Meeting.

Updated Presentation.

It’s Time to Take Another Look at Budget Cuts in San Carlos.

The “Other” Option.

Flatter, not Fatter.

A More Aggressive Approach to Cost Cutting.

The Bottom Line

San Carlos Police Officers Association Gives Official “Thumbs Down” to Outsourcing.

Press Release

A Refreshing Perspective.

A Tough Day for the San Carlos School District…

Reductions and Termination Notices.

Tough Losses.

“Spotlight on San Carlos” Interview Series: San Carlos Police Officer’s Association.

Public Safety – A Hot Topic.

Interview: The San Carlos Police Officer’s Association.

San Carlos City Manager Presents Two Paths to Close Budget Gap.

Two Options Proposed.

The City’s “Preferred” Path: Outsource Fire and Police Services.

The Other Path: Cuts Across the Board.

More Questions than Answers.

What Do You Think?

“Spotlight on San Carlos” Interview Series: City Councilman Andy Klein.

A New Feature!

Our First Guest: Andy Klein.