Recordpub.com - Kent budget impacted by job vacancies Filling posts reduces city's financial savings

By Matt Fredmonsky
Record-Courier staff writer
The city of Kent has been saving money gradually in recent years by not filling city jobs as employees retire, resign or are terminated. But that cost savings is slowly decreasing.
City Council received an update Wednesday from Barb Rissland, the city's budget and finance director, on the city's financial status. Rissland reported on the final numbers for Kent's 2007 financial records and gave a year-to-date summary on the city's income and expenditures.
Kent City Manager Dave Ruller said the city has had fairly significant vacancies when compared to the city's overall employment numbers.
"And when you have vacancies for an extended period you save a significant part of your budget," Ruller said. "That trend is declining."
In 2007, 18.4 full-time equivalent city positions, or roughly 10 percent of the city's overall staff, were vacant, Rissland said. As a result, several of the city's departments reported expenditures for the year finished under the planned budget number.
Overall, the city saved $1.3 million in relation to the city's planned expenditures, Rissland said.
"Close to $800,000 of it was due directly to vacant positions," she said. "Once we start filling those positions those savings, or unspent monies, are going to go away."
Early this decade, the city averaged 10 position vacancies per year from 2000 to 2005. In 2006, that number jumped to 21. In 2007, the city had 17 vacancies. So far this year, the city has nine vacancies.
"We've been holding these positions for a while," Rissland said. "We are filling them now."
Ruller said the city administration polled council members and held multiple community meetings in recent years to gather input about the existing level of community services provided by the city with the decreasing staff levels.
"One of the messages that you all sent back to us was "You need to go back and fill positions,' and we said we're going to go back and fill positions," Ruller said.
Approximately 72 percent of the city's governmental funds pay for city staff salaries and benefits. So far this year, Kent has saved $185,000 through vacant staff positions. The city still maintains approximately $11 million in reserve funds separate from programmed budget expenses.
Ruller cautioned council members not to read too far into the budget numbers Rissland presented.
"We've been able to stay under budget, which is always good for the reserve fund," Ruller said.

Posted by CmdrKJon May 8, 2008

The problem is, many of these necessary jobs are funded by federal grants. If you do not fill the positions, you lose the grant. When administrators leave positions vacant or eliminate them, it looks great on the balance sheet for a year, but it is another lost source of revenue in the following years.

Instead, they hire cronies for do nothing jobs and fail to fill necessary position that actually do the work. I understand giving your buddy a job, but for the benefit of the community, make him/her do the necessary work.

Posted by Dowhatsright May 8, 2008

I think all government need to take a look at their departments and see if the jobs are really needed. The politicians like to have a large work force, because for every person working for government, there are at least two votes for the politicians. The work force is in fear of loosing their jobs if a new person is elected. Therefore, they will vote for the politician regardless of the job he is doing. The fact that the city operates without filling the jobs means that they were not needed in the first place.

TV news just did a report on Cuyahoga County Recorder's office. They hired all those people that supported a politician or ran for office and lost to keep them in the party, and keep their support. They pointed out a $15,000 a year clerk was given a $40,000 a year job in the Recorder's office. There was one given a supervisor's job and had no qualifications at all. There were about a dozen of these people named.
Every time we enlarge a department, we enlarge the cost. We hire more tax people, we have to raise the tax to pay them. We do not need nor do we want a lot of these so called city services. Ravenna use to have garbage pick up, it was included in your property tax. They ended the garbage pick up but did not reduce you tax. They just put more people on some where else, after all they had your money.

Portage County is another example of the good old boy network. They hired a couple of people without posting the jobs so no one else could apply. They wanted supporters and the hell with ability or fair play.

Posted by streakingduck May 8, 2008

So let me get this straight: the services in Kent are already understaffed and ill-funded, so you don't fill vacancies for these services, which make the services even more understaffed, which in turn means that the city falls further into disrepair. And this is the great savings plan? I have an idea. STOP spending money like it grow on trees. I am astounded that all our great city can come up with to keep their spending habits afloat is to not fill city positions. Brilliant!