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Meeting Information



Finance_Committee

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MINUTES OF JUNE 15, 2004 MEETING of the FINANCE COMMITTEE Of the JUVENILE PROBATION COMMISSION

1.

(ACTION)  Roll Call

The Chair convened the meeting at 9:11 am. Comm Hale was present, Comm Richard was absent. Comm. Queen was in attendance.  G. Tucker, M Lui were present for the Dept.

2.

(ACTION) Review and approval of Minutes of March 22, 2004 meetings.

The minutes were approved as written.

(public comment)

There was none.

 

3.

(Public Comment on any matter within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Finance Committee of the Juvenile Probation Commission)

Debbie Murray, a 27 yr employee in the Dept was disturbed at how these positions (including her own) were chosen for cutting, and how they would affect the work in the Dept.  She asked the Commission to consider other cuts that wouldn’t have such a negative impact.  She asked that the documents she submitted be entered into the public record.

 

LaRita Hall spoke in support of two people slated for lay offs.  She also asked the Commission to look into other cuts that could be made in lieu of these.

Henrietta Lee, Shop Steward, spoke against the elimination of the telephone switchboard operator. She said that the remaining staff is being adversely affected by the administration’s choices.

Comm Bonilla empathized with the speakers, but said that the budget cuts being asked now are those asked by the Mayor’s office. He said that now the Commission will be trying to make some impact on the Bd of Supes, but there are no guarantees.

 

4.

(DISCUSSION/ACTION) Review usage of cell phones and city cars, possible recommendation for usage policies.  

This item was tabled until the next Finance Comm. mtg.

(public comment)                                                     

     

5.

(DISCUSSION/ACTION) Review of the Dept budget for any potential recommendations to the full Commission.

Comm Hale commented that he wanted to know how the Mayor’s office came to the decision to cut those particular positions from the Dept budget. He commented that in re instating the cuts the Commission formerly eliminated, along with the new cuts, they are implying that they have more expertise than the Commission in the matter of running the Dept. He also questioned the legality of the Mayor’s office acting directly with the Dept to affect the budget, without Commission approval.

M. Lui reviewed that after the Feb. 20 submission of the Dept budget to the Mayor’s office of Budget and Finance that it became the Mayor’s budget and that they had full control over it.  Comm Hale disagreed with that assessment, saying that there was supposed to be an ongoing conversation with this Commission on the development of the final budget.

Comm Hale asked the Chair if the discussion could first focus on how it was the Mayor decided it was more important to have position “a” cut than position “b”.

M. Lui said it was because the Mayor’s office rejected the projected revenue from LCR. Comm Hale summed it up as the Mayor not having confidence in the progress being made on securing the revenues from this proposal?  Lui said yes.  The Chief disagreed, saying it was soft money.  She said the Mayor’s office was looking for hard dollars.  She said that the overtime savings projections for the Dept were not accepted.  Comm Hale asked about the Dept’s history in projecting revenue savings?

Comm Hale asked why the Mayor’s office waited until after the budget was submitted to them to reject the projected savings in OT –since this was discussed before submission.

Com Bonilla asked what was it about the LCR revenue plan that made it “soft” in the Mayor’s eyes?  He said that he didn’t feel that the Dept proceeded aggressively enough in May. 

The Chief said that they were told the Mayor was going to submit a balanced budget and if the Dept didn’t  (cut), they –the Mayor’s office—would just do it for them, which is what they did.  She said that Steve Kava said they better do something about the OT, that that wasn’t acceptable.

Comm Queen asked the Chief what was done from Feb. that would concretely demonstrate that we could get those projected revenues.  He further asked that if we knew this problem existed two years ago, why is it there is no concrete plan now to deal with this?  The Chief didn’t remember if there had been talk about bed rental two years ago.  She recounted problems with trying to balance the Dept’s budget, while they were trying to re engineer LCR.   She said they were always off balance, so while they were aware of these issues, they couldn’t do anything about that.

Comm Hale repeated that he believed the Mayor’s office did not spell out clearly what it was they would accept in the budget as “hard money” but instead came back afterward and arbitrarily axed the budget. He said they were “forcing the Commission put a policy gun to the heads of our children, when we know best…. what our Dept should look like.”  He asked again, why the Mayor’s office took out the clerical positions that the Commission had reinstated.  Why did they come back and change the Commission’s decisions when those were done in open, public proceedings (that they were in attendance at). This effectively negates any authority the Commission has over the Dept.

Comm Bonilla suggested that lobbying needs to be done to take revenues from revenue generating depts. like the airport, or parking and traffic, and give them to service heavy depts. like ours.

Comm Queen repeated that he possibly could understand the difficulties faced by the dept, he couldn’t accept that two years ago these problems were known but no priority was given to finding the solutions to them then. It wasn’t up to the Mayor to tell the Dept how to do that. It should have been something “we” did two years ago and kept it going through the years.  But now the question is where should the pressure be applied, and what should be the main points to push for recovering some of the budget, given all the violence in the communities.

Comm Hale said he felt the Mayor’s staff has not been deceitful in this. He recognized that they have always had their agenda, and have protected certain programs in the past, without the Commission’s input.  He said that the Commission couldn’t do the work they were sworn to do, to set good sound policy, if they cannot in good faith look to the community (all the partners).

The Chief repeated some comments she made previously about shortage in management affecting the ability to deliver direct services.  She said they were abnormally short. She gave examples: the Finance Director is the only numbers cruncher in the Dept. While there is a 1652 position available, they haven’t filled it, and now the Bd of Supervisors is trying to cut that.  The Dept cannot function and do what it needs to do without an accountant. Three people were laid off around purchasing. There is one person doing purchasing. That’s abnormal and they cannot continue to function that way. “When we look at the clerical, we made some clerical decisions, you made clerical decisions.  We have been asked to make further cuts in clerical. I do not agree with those.  We are re organizing probation services around the principles of JDAI and how we do business, and automate some things, and yes, we will be able to streamline some things. But the kinds of cuts we are being asked to make are going to severely impact the services that we render. .. I appreciate the opportunity of what you put on the table. The kinds of work that we do are mandated. When we look at Log Cabin Ranch, let me say the reason why Log Cabin Ranch is not on the table. We made a concerted effort last year, and I followed through, lobbying the Bd of Supervisors, because you know a resolution went through. Lobbied with the PD, and the DA that Log Cabin Ranch was an alternative to CYA, in fact I sent out a notification and a public notice about the fact that Log Cabin Ranch was San Francisco’s alternative. So there was no way that any Bd of Supervisors, or anybody, not even Coleman Advocates, who advocated the closing of Log Cabin Ranch. Log Cabin Ranch had been cleared (sic), nobody has said in this fiscal year anything about closing Log Cabin Ranch. We have secured that. Our task is exactly what we’re doing, getting it up to speed so it can serve that. But we are in fact being held in the budget, when you look at the other public safety agencies, Juvenile Probation Dept—and I want to thank Rich Perino for getting this information—Rich Perino found, and got a copy and brought to us a copy where Juvenile Probation Dept is being cut 15.4%. The Sheriff is cut 0.2% and yet the Sheriff sends me a letter on June 3, to say that on July 1, we’re not covering the front door anymore.” “That’s a safety problem that will cost us overtime.”  The Fire Dept..the cut was maybe 2%. Adult probation, they’re losing one person. The police are like… and I have these statistics that I will provide you. We are, of the public safety organizations, being cut disproportionately. The Mayor had made a commitment that youth services were not going to be cut. Are we not youth services? Are we not a critical youth service, that, we are getting killed here.  And I’ll go back to my original position, when I submitted the budget I said we could cut anymore. Now when we look at another 15% I’m saying we are being crippled. We’re not going to be able to do our jobs. We’re developing a list of impacts that I want input from everybody so we can look at the impact that this dept is suffering. Not only those individuals that have been here 30 something years, but the expertise, the brain drain we’re going to have as a result of losing these very important individuals. Specialized skills.”

Comm Bonilla wanted to know what the strategy is, what will be the lobbying effort.

The Chief said that Comm Ricci asked them to develop a list of the impacts. And the lobbying should be done with the Bd of Supervisors. She said that the unions’ role would be important as well as the CBOs.  She wants to show the Bd that “over 3 yrs the management has been reduced to nothing, while reduction to direct services has remained kind of stable in terms of lay offs. But the attrition has been in terms of retirement and that kind of thing, so that has reduced.”

She spoke of past experiences hiring people without doing background checks and having them work more than the 1040 hrs for an on call status, and having them get benefits which they in turn used to create discipline problems and become workers comp problems now.

Comm Hale recommended the Commission decide what role it should play.  He felt they needed to talk to as many Supervisors, once they have that impact list.  Comm Queen agreed. He said a schematic that showed the differences among depts’ cuts would be revealing. 

Comm Bonilla asked when that document (list) would be ready. The Chief didn’t have a time.

Comm Hale asked Comm Bonilla to have a conversation with Comm Ricci about meeting with the Mayor’s Finance people to see how much of these budget recommendations are really “going through the Mayor.”

Comm Queen emphasized the need to get the bullet points together by Friday, given the shortness in time before the hearing. He also suggested getting a planning meeting together this Friday, with unions, employees, Dept, under the leadership of the Commission, to prepare for the June 25th hearing. He said he’d discuss this with Comm Ricci for her guidance, but felt it was needed.

The Chief said, “the plan that I’ve been working on is working on the bullet points in terms of impacts, with an historical view of how we’ve been cut and the impact on services and this ultimate impact, and as well I know that the Program Committee will be coming up with, the Ad Hoc Committee will be coming up with a recommendation in terms of what it takes in terms of Log Cabin Ranch to put it on its feet. And that means a capital investment that does not mean the same little budget that we currently have.. one of the problems of Log Cabin Ranch is that there’s no capital investment in it. So, we know that the package that Comm Queen is working on, and that you’ve been a very part of, is going to include asking for additional dollars. I also will be in my submission indicating what positions that we think, and I think of course the Commission is going to have something to say about that, the positions that should be restored and not cut, because of the impact.”

Comm Hale asked how the additional positions for layoff come about.  He also wanted to know what the Mayor’s staff’s rationale was for adding back the clerical positions for layoff that the Commission had removed.

The Chief said they were given instructions to come up with a budget to meet the required reductions in costs (eg. 20% administration). She said that she recalls in her history here that once the budget was passed to the Mayor’s office, it became their budget and they could do whatever they wanted to it.

Comm Bonilla summed up that he would take the prerogative of calling for the meeting for Friday, and if another Finance Comm. meeting were needed, that would be done appropriately.  He would contact Comm Ricci and inform her about this.

The Chief was supportive of having such a meeting but suggested having the meeting without the unions, first, and then bring them to the table.

Comm Hale disagreed.  There is no time for splitting up the forces. This needs to be done all together.

Comm Hale asked about the cuts in CBO contracts.  The Chief said that the Mayor’s office asked for a continuation of the specific cuts approved by the Commission last Dec., which averaged 4%, totaling $271K.

Comm Hale commented that the community was not given the opportunity to respond to the budget decisions made by the Mayor’s staff.

(public comment)
Henrietta Lee said that it would be best for the workers themselves speaking about the impact on their work.

In regards to the OT problem, she said that they are 790 members who are taking advantage of the system, but management needs to take control of the OT, which they haven’t.

Mercy Bran said that other depts. have been doing lobbying and have gotten positions reinstated.

Rich Perino said there are plenty of solutions available and proposed, but never acted upon.  He said if 790 were willing to make some concessions to the issue in the hall, there are solutions.

When asked whom those proposals were made to, he said that in several arenas, with B. Johnston, and the Chief.  Comm Hale said that while it was presented, there are labor issues involved. 

Brenda Rollins spoke about the cuts and how it will leave personnel in a skeletal state, which would not be able to continue supporting the dept as it has been doing.  Others are not trained to do her work.

L. Holmes commented that there is a communication problem in the dept. and that whatever the final cuts are, there needs to be an understanding that this was an equitable process and nobody was singled out.

Comm Hale said that everyone needs to call someone to make this work, since there is no single person who has that charge now.

The Chief said she sent out an email to everyone in the dept, to let them know her concerns.  She said that the dept should be present at the Bd of Supes hearing en mass. 

The Chief announced that TANF funds were restored June 5,  approx. $134K to the general fund.

 

  6.

(ACTION) Adjournment

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11am.