THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO M E M O R A N D U M DATE: May 14, 2020 TO: Honorable Councilmember Barbara Bry, Budget Review Committee Chair, and Honorable Budget Review Committee Members FROM: Matthew Vespi, Department of Finance Director and City Comptroller SUBJECT: Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Review Committee Referral Responses for the May 6, 2020 Afternoon Session ________________________________________________________ This memorandum provides responses and/or follow up information to unanswered questions asked at the Budget Review Committee meeting held on the afternoon of May 6, 2020. The responses are listed by department in the order that they were reviewed by the Committee. In response to Council President Gomez and the Independent Budget Analyst’s (IBA) questions regarding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Proposed Budget webpage has been updated to include a link to the KPI page built and maintained by the Performance and Analytics Department. These KPIs, in addition to new visualizations, can be found at https://www.sandiego.gov/finance/proposed. Fleet Operations COUNCIL DISTRICT 8 QUESTION: How much is the Department spending on outside contracts in the FY 2021 Proposed Budget? What is the incremental change from the FY 2020 Adopted Budget? Please include value and duration. RESPONSE: Please see the Attachment 1 – Fleet Operations – Contracts for a list of contracts that are under the purview of Fleet Operations with the expected FY 2020 and FY 2021 spend amount. Please note that this list does not include citywide contacts that are not administered by Fleet Operations. QUESTION: The Kearny Mesa Repair Facility requires $13.8M of funding to complete the project. Can the project be canceled and if it was canceled, what are the impacts? RESPONSE: The Kearny Mesa Repair Facility project (KMRF) is a critical need for Fleet Operations to effectively and efficiently repair and maintain two of the City’s essential Priority 1 Fleets: Page 2 Honorable Councilmember Barbara Bry, Budget Review Committee Chair, and Honorable Budget Review Committee Members May 14, 2020 Fire-Rescue Apparatus and Refuse Packers. The Miramar Place facility (MP) is a 3 shift, 24 hours a day, 5 days a week operation with 60 employees to accommodate the needs of both fleets. The City brought in Huron Consultants on two separate occasions, once in 2014 and again in 2016, to review operations and both reviews and subsequent reports identified that there was not enough space at Miramar to accommodate both the Refuse Packer and Fire Apparatus fleets. In the 2016 report it stated “…the current set up for performing the maintenance on both Fire and Refuse fleets at the Miramar Shop is not adequate to allow the technicians to be successful in keeping both fleets serviced and, meet the departments’ needs. This shared space leads to a number of inefficiencies and has caused both fleets to keep a higher number of spare vehicles to make sure the departments can perform their missions on a daily basis. In addition, without running a second shift, the Fire technicians do not have enough bay space to adequately do their jobs. The issue is obvious when technicians are working on fire equipment outside instead of being able to pull the unit in a bay.” Due to the shared workspace and multiple shifts, fire trucks are often removed from their stalls at the end of the shift, to accommodate the repair and maintenance of refuse packer in the swing and night shifts. The new facility will also allow for future growth and “surge” capacity. As the City continues to open new fire stations, more fire trucks are added to the Fleet. Additionally, demand for fire truck availability “surges” periodically due to a year-round fire season. More space is needed to accommodate a growing fire fleet and its surge demand. Without completion of KMRF, vehicle availability times may be comprised, impacting service levels for refuse collection and availability of front line and reserve fire apparatus that provide critical and essential services to citizens of San Diego. Fleet Operations is also expecting growth in the refuse packer fleet due to services required of the City from Senate Bill 1383. To maintain our greenhouse gas emission requirements in support of the Climate Action Plan, additional CNG fill stations will be needed to support the additional packers. However, with both Refuse Packers and Fire Apparatus parking at the facility the space needed for the additional parking and CNG fill stations to accommodate the growth is not available. COUNCIL DISTRICT 9 QUESTION: What happens if Council does not approve the financing mechanism of the Kearny Mesa Repair Facility? RESPONSE: Funding for this project would be prioritized amongst other projects for available funding sources. Department of Finance has identified various Capital Improvement Projects that are currently cash funded and are eligible to be funded with commercial paper (CP). The proposed funding mechanism is utilizing CP to fund the identified projects and swap the cash with the CP to fund KMRF. It is important to note that the lease on this property was extended to 30 years which means the City of San Diego will occupy this facility for the useful life of the tenant improvements. Also, within the terms of the lease, the City has first option to purchase the property should the owner decide to sell. Please refer to the response of the previous question for the service level impacts to the City if this project is not funded. Page 3 Honorable Councilmember Barbara Bry, Budget Review Committee Chair, and Honorable Budget Review Committee Members May 14, 2020 Engineering & Capital Projects COUNCIL DISTRICT 8 QUESTION: What is the impact of the $1.6M reduction in training and computer equipment for staff? What exactly will be lost with this reduction? RESPONSE: The impact of the $1.6M reduction in training and computer equipment would result in staff providing all future trainings in-house to the extent possible. The department will have to look at other alternatives for providing specialized trainings that would require certain expertise that in-house staff do not have. Computer accessories/equipment will be used beyond its lifecycle and recycled amongst employees for a longer duration. Additionally, the $1.6M includes a reduction in city services expenditures as a result of less than anticipated services provided by other City departments. QUESTION: Has the department begun any preliminary projections on determining what is happening in the construction industry in our region due to the COVID-19 pandemic and how that might affect our ability to attract qualified employees to the department? Response: No preliminary analysis has been conducted; however, we will continue to monitor the situation. We expect, based on past recessions, the cost for construction bids will be lower and the unemployment rate higher, which will help us attract qualified employees and fill our vacancies. QUESTION: Please confirm that with each water, sewer, storm water, undergrounding and traffic engineering project, the affected streets will be resurfaced at the completion of the work. RESPONSE: Yes, to minimize damage to public infrastructure including the pavement surface, to ensure public safety, to restore diminished lifecycle costs and to prevent degradation of the existing pavement, pavement surface shall be restored to its original pre-existing surface condition after any excavation work for wet and dry utilities. Pavement restoration work may include replacement of asphalt concrete, repairs of existing asphalt concrete with failures, slurry sealing from curb to curb or nearest median, replacement of concrete pavement, additional pavement repairs beyond the limits of excavation and other preparatory work (hump removal and crack seal). The purpose of the additional pavement repairs is to ensure that the pavement adjacent to the trench zone repairs are sufficiently stable and to prevent degradation of the existing pavement within the work zone so that the full length of the reduced life cycle can be restored. The type and methodology of pavement restoration are based on the depth and width of the excavation, and the type and pre-existing condition of the pavement surface as described in the City Engineer’s memos (https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/cip/pdf/2015-05-01_memo.pdf and Page 4 Honorable Councilmember Barbara Bry, Budget Review Committee Chair, and Honorable Budget Review Committee Members May 14, 2020 https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/updated_requirements_for_slurry_seal_requ irements_in_public_right-of-way_september_17_2018.pdf). COUNCIL DISTRICT 9 QUESTION: What has caused staff to leave the department in FY 2020, and have the previous salary increases helped? RESPONSE: The department conducts Employee Exit Interviews at the time an employee leaves the City and/or transfers out to another department. Based on the data we collected, pay and promotional opportunity were cited most frequently by employees for reasons why they left the Department. Employees leave because they perceive opportunities to improve career and salary are better elsewhere. However, these employees have also expressed great appreciation for their fellow co-workers and management and would be willing to come back to the department if new opportunities should arise. The department has been monitoring the effects of the salary and certification pay increases since it went into effect on January 1, 2019. As a result, the department expected to see an increase in the number of candidates applying for these positions, but the department is still struggling to fill its vacancies primarily due to a shortage of candidates responding to open recruitments and a disproportionate number of promotions compared to new hires. As shown in the table below, new hires (including transfers in) compared to employees leaving the department is about a 1:1 ratio for FY 2020. Additionally, the department has promoted 46 employees to- date, thereby still leaving the department with 46 vacancies.