11. 21-0295
Consideration of a Resolution Approving Amendment No. 2 with Laz Parking California LLC and Conditionally Authorizing the City Manager to Negotiate and Execute a One-Year Agreement with Laz Parking for Supplemental Parking Enforcement Services at a Total Cost Not-to-Exceed $350,000 (Police Chief Abell and Human Resources Director Jenkins).
ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 21-0078
The contract cost deos not seem to add up to previously promised staffing reduction / reassignments - where is the money coming from and how is the outsourcing of parking enforcement being paid for / reimbursed? Why is outsourcing necessary? I hope City Council asks the tough questions of staff and takes a deep dive into the quality of work being preformed by LAZ vs that of City staff - if we are in fact saving money by outsourcing parking enforcement it may be that we "get what we pay for". Please do not allow a negoiated contract without milestone metrics for high level preformance and not simply make a decision based on dollars.
I'm in favor of the proposition, as anytime we can replace city employees with contract help we will generally save money and have more program flexibility (as long as there is effective oversight from city employees as to the conduct of the contract workers). However, I would request the CC to look deeper into this sentence: "Two additional vacant positions were removed from the Police Department’s budget on July 1, 2021 and reallocated to Community Development to offset the cost of two new Code Enforcement Officer positions." During the budget sessions, the Chief said he could easily reassign this head count, yet we have this proposal just a few months later. CC said they would authorize the shift to code enforcement only if there would be no headcount increase, which the CM said he could do. Now we have this. Seems like a lot of budgetary shenanigans, where prior representations have a very short life.
The contract cost deos not seem to add up to previously promised staffing reduction / reassignments - where is the money coming from and how is the outsourcing of parking enforcement being paid for / reimbursed? Why is outsourcing necessary? I hope City Council asks the tough questions of staff and takes a deep dive into the quality of work being preformed by LAZ vs that of City staff - if we are in fact saving money by outsourcing parking enforcement it may be that we "get what we pay for". Please do not allow a negoiated contract without milestone metrics for high level preformance and not simply make a decision based on dollars.
I'm in favor of the proposition, as anytime we can replace city employees with contract help we will generally save money and have more program flexibility (as long as there is effective oversight from city employees as to the conduct of the contract workers). However, I would request the CC to look deeper into this sentence: "Two additional vacant positions were removed from the Police Department’s budget on July 1, 2021 and reallocated to Community Development to offset the cost of two new Code Enforcement Officer positions." During the budget sessions, the Chief said he could easily reassign this head count, yet we have this proposal just a few months later. CC said they would authorize the shift to code enforcement only if there would be no headcount increase, which the CM said he could do. Now we have this. Seems like a lot of budgetary shenanigans, where prior representations have a very short life.