Fiscal Year 2013-2015 Special Budget Meeting

Page 4 FY 2013-2015 BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS Past Short-Term and Long-Term Cost-Cutting Measures The City’s sworn and civilian employees have made significant contributions to help bridge multi-million shortfalls. Pursuant to the collective bargaining agreements, City employee’s wages were reduced and all employees are now contributing the full employee share of pension costs. Current labor agreements that include these cost-cutting concessions are set to begin expiring in June 2013. Examples of austerity and cost-cutting measures to address the $318 million in cumulative shortfalls since July 2008 include the following: Table 1: Past Short-term and Long-term Cost-Cutting Measures Taken Short-Term Measures Long-Term Measures ● Employees temporarily contributed 10% of compensation ● Initiated hiring freeze ● Closed City offices 12 days per year and added floating furlough days ● Deferred maintenance of facilities and streets ● Eliminated two fire engine companies and implemented rolling brown outs ● Closed branch libraries one day per week ● Reduced hours at recreation centers, branch libraries, and senior centers ● Eliminated more than 239 vehicles in the fleet ● Significantly reduced tree trimming ● Restricted travel , training, and discretionary spending ● Reduced grants and subsidies to community organizations ● Sold surplus property and land ● Eliminated 720 full-time equivalent positions ● Increased employee’s retirement contribution ● Implemented new two-tier retirement system ● Reorganized and combined several City departments to achieve operational efficiencies ● Eliminated façade improvement grants, graffiti abatement and illegal dumping programs ● Transferred eligible expenditures to restricted funds, freeing up General Fund dollars ● Increased fees ● Invested in economic development strategies Maximizing Revenue The City has pursued ways to maximize revenue. State law limits the City’s ability to levee new taxes, so the only means of increasing revenues without voter approval is to raise fees associated with certain City services. By law, these fees can only cover the City’s actual cost to provide the service (e.g., the City cannot make a profit from basic service fees). To maximize revenue, the City has employed a variety of strategies, which have significantly yielded results, such as:  Pursued grants from federal and state governments as well as foundations and the private sector;  Aggressively pursued dollars owed the City through special revenue collection efforts;  Developed more public/private partnerships; and,  Increased fees to fully recover the costs related to providing services.