CHARLIE HALFORD

I believe the city needs to be fiscally responsible, managing their (our) finances in a prudent informed reasonable manner. The city, the City Council, needs to remember that they are spending the public’s tax money, money that they worked hard to earn. I have listed below several issues that gravely concern me regarding the finances of the city.

1. At the December 3, 2019 Council Meeting Staff requested the Council authorize the closing of City between December 23 and December 27th. Giving all employees an extra three days off. It was stated it would be at no cost, however Police, Fire, Wastewater and Refuse all still must work. Additionally, there were approximately 400 employees at the time, meaning 1200 days off were given or the equivalent of 4.6 full time employees or more than 1.15% of the days an employee would have worked in 2019. There is and was an actual out of pocket cost to cover those personnel who could not take the time off in the Fire Department, Police Department, Wastewater and Refuse. In addition, there was a loss of productivity of at least 1.15% for the year. We have been told how understaffed the city is, however, they were willing to give away 3 days of work per employee. We have been told of the backlog of things that need to be done, but the city gave employees an extra three days off. Not one council member questioned the cost of closing the City Offices. It’s important to note that nowhere in the staff report does it say that all employees were to receive 3 additional floating holidays, only that the City Offices would be closed for the three days. Here is a link to the article in the Manteca Bulletin: Here is a link to the video of the City Council meeting. Here is a link to the Staff report that the City Council based their decision on:.

2.December 3, 2019 City Council Meeting, at the recommendation of Acting Finance Director Lutzow, City Council approved the MOU with OE3 which will trigger an additional increase for all other bargaining units.
Link to Staff Report:

3.February 18, 2020 City Council Meeting Staff presents a power point regarding current and future personnel needs of the city. It should be noted that the City Council received the information late the afternoon of the meeting and power point/info was not available to the public. The PowerPoint was not placed on the website until weeks after the meeting. There are no estimates of costs or when the positions will be needed. The inference was that it is a 5-year plan. As of August 19, 2020, the PowerPoint is not available on the City’s website. I do have a copy if you would like a copy.

4.Sunday March 15, 2020 City Manager acting as Director of Emergency Services, declared a local emergency due to COVID 19.

5. March 17, 2020 City Council approves 16 new positions at a total first year annual cost of $1,839,410 with a cost to the General Fund of $689,677. This was done outside of the normal budget process, without considering all the needs of the city and without knowing what the revenues are going to be and while the Finance Department is lacking in management staff.
Click here Link to Staff Report:

6. April 7, 2020, City Council Ratifies Declaration of the Emergency and continues the Emergency Proclamation for COVID 19.

7. May 19, 2020 Council Meeting. Council approves a budget appropriation of $984,826 as a result of the OE3 Employee a 1% higher raise in their contract than the other employee groups. The other employee groups had “me too” clauses in their agreements that had all be approved by council prior to the approval by City Council of the OE3 agreement on December 3, 2020. The staff report states that the Former Finance Director and the city’s contract attorney were the negotiating team. However, on October15, November 5, the current City Manager was given direction regarding negotiations and she had been the Administrative Services Director since July and Acting City Manager since September. This a nearly million-dollar mistake.
Click here for Link to Staff Report:
Click here for Link to Council Discussion and approval:

8. June 16, 2020 Council Meeting. City Council approves a Provisional Budget for FY20-21 with a more than 2-million-dollar General Fund deficit.
a. Budget anticipates a doubling of the TOT and Sales tax to stay the same, even though $2,000,000 less Sales Tax was anticipated to be collected in FY 19-20.
b. The projected General Fund Revenue assumes a rather generous amount of Hotel Tax (TOT) and Sales tax based on the anticipated opening of Great Wolf that is now expected to be after October at the earliest rather than July.
c. The budget anticipates $47.7 Million in General Fund Revenue which is $4.4 Million more than was projected to be received in last fiscal year.
d. The anticipated actual expenditures in the General fund are expected to be approximately $4.5 Million less than budgeted.
Click here for Link to Staff Report:

9. July 21, 2020 Council Meeting, City Council approves amendments to side letter agreements with employee associations clarifying that all groups received an additional 1% cost of living raise as a result of the additional 1% given to OE3.
Click here for Link to staff report:

10. August 4, 2020 City Council Meeting, Staff requests that a ballot measure be placed on the November 3, 2020 ballot asking that a One Cent Sales tax be authorized. I don’t believe now is the time to ask for a One cent Tax Increase. The staff report says nothing about what the tax is needed for. The staff presentation in my opinion does not justify the need for a sales tax increase.
Click here for Link to the Staff Report:
Click here for Link to the staff presentation: