THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2006
Radermacher: City Needs To 'Get Handle' On Staffing
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
There are 288 full-time employees in Park Ridge right now. Is that too many? Not enough?
About two-thirds of the city's $45 million budget is spent on personnel, both full and part-time. Is that percentage too high? Can the city reduce its staff and still deliver services and function effectively?
The city council's Finance and Budget Committee has put these questions on its agenda and will discuss them at its next meeting on June 13, at a 7:30 p.m. meeting in city hall.
Discussions regarding a possible hiring freeze began several weeks ago in the council's Procedures and Regulations Committee, chaired by Ald. Jeff Cox. They grew out of the council's recent budget process discussions, during which many ways to cut expenses were discussed and some implemented. The issue was later shifted to the Finance and Budget Committee, chaired by Ald. Donald Crampton.
Aldermen did reduce the 2006-07 budget by a modest amount before approving it in April, and they also approved increases in many fees and local taxes that balanced the budget, through revenue enhancement.
Having exhausted most if not all of those options, some aldermen are now starting to look at the city's staff costs.
"One of the things I'm pushing for is to do an in-depth study of our staffing and to compare ourselves with surrounding communities to determine how we stand with personnel," said Ald. James Radermacher, a member of the Finance and Budget Committee. "If we're going to do anything regarding a hiring freeze, for example, we need a lot more information about how we compare to other communities in our area. We are locked into contracts with many unionized employees, but we certainly should take a look at how many employees we have."
He said he favors a temporary hiring freeze, pending the results of a staff study. "Maybe we're under-staffed, maybe we're over-staffed, I just don't know," he said. We need to get a handle on our staffing situation, since it's such a big part of our annual expense."
The city's 288 full-time employees include (figures are rounded up) 83 in the police department, 57 in public works, 56 in the public library, 53 in the fire department, 12 each in finance and general administration areas, and 13 in community development and preservation.
Human Resources Director Linda Kica said at a recent Finance and Budget meeting that,. from 1997 to 2006, the city increased its full-time staff by about 23 positions. The largest increase during that period was the police department, where 11 new full-timers were hired.
In a recent head-count comparison with nine surrounding communities, Park Ridge ranked third lowest in the n number of employees per 1,000 residents (5.77). The city ranked second lowest in the number of public works employees (52 compared to 68 in Niles and 72 in Glenview), third-lowest in the number of fire employees, second lowest in the number of police employees, fifth-lowest in the number of finance employees, and fifth-lowest in the number of community development employees.
"That's a good start, but we need more details as to what these people actually do, so we can compare the numbers to our own," said Radermacher.