City examines outsourcing, staff cuts, furloughs to balance 2011 budget
Written on June 30, 2010
Facing a projected budget deficit of just more than $8 million, the city of Wichita is looking at outsourcing more of its services to private companies, says City Manager Robert Layton.
Layton said at a preliminary presentation of the 2011 budget Monday night that the city is still working out the details of how its outsourcing ideas would work. One possibility is what he called the Phoenix model.
The city of Phoenix, he says, operates a system in which the appropriate city department prepares a bid that can be compared against bids of private companies.
"We're not going to blindly pursue outsourcing," he said, adding action would only be taken if the council believed outsourcing would maintain services while keeping costs down.
Layton said at a preliminary presentation of the 2011 budget Monday night that his proposed budget also is likely to include:
• 65 layoffs. Those affected would include the office of central inspection and the planning department, which have seen a slowdown in activity as a result of the economic downturn, and what Layton called more "proactive" services such as school resource officers payday loan online.
• Furloughs of one day per quarter in 2011 for managerial staff and some other city employees.
The City Council intends to keep the mill levy steady and keep compensation for city employees level, with opportunities for merit raises and step increases, Layton says.
The city's budget deficit is largely a result of revenues that are about $6.2 million lower than the city had projected. Mark Manning, the city's budget officer, says the lower revenues are mostly in economically sensitive areas such as sales tax collection, franchise fees and interest earnings.
Meanwhile, the city is facing higher costs in areas such as employee benefits. Health insurance costs are up 10 percent and pensions are up 11 percent, Layton says.
Layton plans to distribute his finalized budget proposal July 13. The City Council is set to begin a series of hearings, with a vote for formal adoption on Aug. 10.
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