REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Update to the Status of Department of Public Safety Recruitment and Staffing and Approval of Budget Modification No. 28
Report
REPORT IN BRIEF
The Department of Public Safety (DPS) is facing several staffing challenges that this report seeks to address. Additionally, the City Council has expressed interest in an update on current recruitment actions and plans for accelerating hiring. Staff is recommending action on three separate but related issues associated with the recruitment and training of Public Safety Officers (PSOs) which include adding three additional authorized positions, accelerating recruitment funding, and adding a Public Safety Specialist to recruitment staff to support accelerated recruitment activities.
Changing conditions and increases in demands for service are prompting DPS to request an increase of its authorized sworn positions from 198 to 201. The north side of Sunnyvale has been increasing in density due to new development, with new commercial development increasing the daytime population and corresponding demand for DPS services. The additional positions are to address the need to staff a new fire ladder truck that is being funded by the Jay Paul Company, along with the construction of a new Fire Station 5. Both the new fire station and the new ladder truck are being funded as part of the Moffett Place project. The new fire station is anticipated to open in December of 2015 and will serve the north area of Sunnyvale.
In order to bring on additional staff, as well as fill a higher than expected number of vacancies, Staff is also requesting approval of Budget Modification No. 28 to accelerate funding for Public Safety Officer recruitment activities. Currently 188 of 198 sworn positions are filled. Vacancies are occurring for essentially three reasons. First, retirements and other separations are happening at an elevated level. Second, the Department added three new positions, increasing the Department's authorized sworn positions from 195 to 198 during FY 2013/14. The purpose of the positions was to fund a Street Crimes Unit, which has not yet been implemented due to the long lead time to hire and train PSOs. Third, the Department suspended recruitment efforts in FY 2011/12 as it was actually over-staffed, thereby ending the fiscal year over budget and requiring a Council approved budget modification.
Lastly, this report recommends the addition of a Public Safety Specialist to perform recruitment related duties in order to support accelerated recruiting. Current staffing dedicated to these tasks is limited to one individual Public Safety Lieutenant.
BACKGROUND
The Department of Public Safety (DPS) is currently authorized for 198 sworn positions which include 11 managers, 42 lieutenants and 145 public safety officers (PSO II). In the PSO classification, there is a distinction between fully trained officers (PSO II) and officers who are in the training program (PSO I and PSOIT). The Department deploys PSO IIs across both the Police and Fire Bureaus, as well as over other operational areas. PSOs must complete all initial training in police, fire and EMS before permanent assignment. Upon completion of training, sworn officers are reclassified as a PSO II. Officers in the training program are not counted in the total number of authorized positions. The training program for entry level PSOs spans approximately 18 months. Lateral officers from an outside law enforcement agency take approximately 12 months to train.
Services provided to the community by DPS are performed primarily by PSO IIs. As the training time is substantial, adding additional services requires a strategic approach. In FY 2013/14 Council approved three additional sworn positions for DPS to address a significant increase in property crimes; specifically, the positions were allocated to form a new Street Crimes Unit. It is important to note that while these positions were approved in FY 2013/14, it takes approximately 18 to 24 months to add the services and staff due to recruitment and hiring efforts. During this time period, DPS employs specific, targeted actions to suppress property crimes, such as a temporary Burglary Suppression Unit, staffed on overtime. Now, in addition to the economic recovery and corresponding increasing demand for services, the City finds itself relocating and expanding Fire Station 5 through a developer contribution to better serve the north side of Sunnyvale, which includes the addition of a new fire ladder truck requiring additional staffing in the Bureau of Fire Services. Opening late 2015, now is the appropriate time to begin to hire and train staff to eventually add these additional services.
While working to meet community demands, DPS is also experiencing an elevated number of retirements and separations. Currently, only 188 sworn public safety officers are eligible for full duty leaving 10 sworn vacancies (198 authorized positions). Typically, PSO II vacancies are created through service retirements and unanticipated separations. The number of separations can fluctuate due to personal factors, economic conditions, or injuries. DPS is currently experiencing a high level of vacancies due to a significant number of retirements and a variety of other factors.
One of the contributing factors was the suspension of recruitment efforts. In FY 2010/11 and FY 2011/12, DPS was staffed over its authorized positions (195 at the time). Due to the long lead time to fully train a PSO II, staff works to recruit and train officers in advance of anticipated separations by annually reviewing and projecting upcoming separations. In these two years, DPS was implementing the Community Service Officer (CSO) model and dropping the number of sworn positions through attrition from 205 to 195, adding 10 CSO positions. This left DPS in an overstaffed position, requiring a $500,000 budget modification to the Department's operating budget to address the overage financially. As a result, recruitment activities were halted.
At the same time, most other public safety agencies throughout the region were also freezing recruitment efforts due to the economic downturn. An unanticipated consequence included the closure or suspension of police academies in the area resulting in fewer training academy options and spaces available for a large number of recruits. This further impeded the City's rebounding recruitment and training efforts. Then came the addition of the three new positions in FY 2013/14 to staff the street crimes unit, creating three additional vacancies. The addition in FY 2011/12 of six specially trained Community Service Officers (CSO) to perform duties not requiring a sworn officer is mitigating some of the impact from these vacancies. However, staff is projecting that the number of vacancies will remain elevated for the next several years due primarily to anticipated retirements.
Many of the efforts related to recruiting and hiring PSOITs (for example, job postings, application screenings, and arranging for oral board interview panels) are handled by the Department of Human Resources. In this regard, the recruitment of PSOs is no different than any other City recruitment. However, there is an aspect of the PSO recruitment process that is unique to the Department of Public Safety, and that is the performance of background checks. Background checks on individuals applying for the position of PSO are much different than the background checks performed on others, and conducting those background checks requires specialized training and skills. For this reason, the background checks of PSOs are conducted by DPS staff, who also help to market the Public Safety program to likely recruits (e.g., college students; veterans, etc.).
The Department previously had a second full time sworn officer and a CSO permanently assigned to the Unit. This CSO position was later reclassified as a Public Safety Specialist. As reductions occurred based upon the economy, the Department made the decision to reduce staffing in the Personnel Unit based upon future anticipated hiring needs at the time. The Department has been utilizing modified duty personnel on a limited basis to supplement the work of the Recruiting Lieutenant. Current staffing dedicated to recruitment related tasks is limited to one individual and based on the average number of separations and not the elevated conditions currently being experienced. Additional capacity is needed to more appropriately and timely address our recruitment needs.
EXISTING POLICY
Council Policy 4.3.1 Support Services - Goals and Policies
Goal 4.3A Sustain a quality work force in order to assure that Public Safety Services are provided in a quality and efficient manner.
Policy 4.3A.1. Train and develop employees to meet state and local standards.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This activity does not require environmental review because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that it may have a significant effect on the environment (CEQA Guideline 15061(b)(3)).
DISCUSSION
Staff is recommending that Council take three separate but related actions to address staffing needs in the Department of Public Safety. These include increasing the authorized number of sworn positions to meet new community demand, accelerating funding of recruitment activities to address filling an elevated number of vacancies, and the addition of a Public Safety Specialist to support accelerating recruiting activities.
Fire Station 5 Staffing
DPS is requesting to increase its authorized sworn positions from 198 to 201. This request is to address the need to staff a new fire ladder truck that is being funded by the Jay Paul Company, along with the construction of a relocated Fire Station 5. Both the new fire station and the new ladder truck are being funded as part of the Moffett Place project. The fire station and ladder truck will be located in District 5. District 5 is located in the northern portion of the City and is primarily comprised of commercial development, but also provides public safety services to approximately 8,500 residents. New building construction in District 5 has dramatically changed the landscape, with a significant increase in the number of mid and high rise buildings. The increased height, density and complexity of the new developments present contemporary challenges to public safety services which require additional staffing for response to calls for service. Fire Station 5 and the new ladder truck are scheduled to be ready for service in late 2015.
Current staffing for Station 5 includes one PSO and one Lieutenant per fire team, for a total of six officers over three teams; two additional PSOs per fire team will be necessary to operate the new ladder truck. Given the long lead times for hiring and training, an interim solution to staff the ladder truck is needed. Based upon the current and anticipated increased vacancy rate, the Department recognizes the challenges in providing staffing for both the new ladder truck and the Street Crimes Unit in the short term. Given our fiscal constraints, the Department believes that staffing the new ladder truck, a front line service, takes priority over the implementation of the Street Crimes Unit, an enhanced service. The three new positions authorized in FY 2013/14 to staff the newly formed Street Crimes Unit are not yet occupied and the Street Crimes Unit has not been implemented. In the meantime, DPS will continue to conduct special enforcement operations on a temporary basis to address contemporary crime issues. Due to the priority of staffing the ladder truck, DPS management proposes to delay implementation of the Street Crimes Unit, and reallocate those resources to staff the truck while recruitment and training efforts run their course. This also provides staff additional time to evaluate a strategic approach to permanently staffing this new service along with existing services.
Recruitment Funding
All costs associated with initial hiring and training of PSOs are funded in the projects budget, with each project representing a recruitment class. The amount of funding each year is reviewed annually and partially based on anticipated separations in the coming year, which include retirements due to injury, failure of probation, resignation and termination. The Department has averaged six unanticipated separations per year over the last 10 years. The most current data shows that 14 sworn personnel are eligible to retire in FY 2014/15 with an additional nine in FY 2015/16. In order to remain at or near the authorized sworn staffing level of 198, the Department must pre-hire within the appropriate amount of time to ensure that new PSOs are able to complete the training program before current employees separate service. An officer hired today will not impact minimum staffing until June 2016. However, this must be carefully balanced, as becoming overstaffed can be at great cost with each PSO II costing approximately $265,000 annually. In FY 2012/13, DPS restarted the recruitment process and currently has twenty recruits in the training program funded between two recruitment projects. The FY 2013/14 project was originally set to fund nine recruits but thirteen are currently enrolled due to hiring needs based upon unanticipated separations; this project requires additional funding to support the extra four recruits, who are expected to complete the program in August 2015.
The FY 2014/15 project is currently funded to support 18 recruits. However, based on data regarding anticipated and unanticipated separations, coupled with the current staffing level and number of trainees, the Department believes it is necessary to pull recruitment project funding forward to increase the budget to support 10 additional PSO positions to the current recruitment project. The following table summarizes the need for the additional 10 recruits. The factor used for unanticipated separations represents 50% of the average vacancy rate over the last ten years as a cautious approach to avoid overstaffing.
Authorized Sworn Staffing |
Current Sworn Staffing |
PSO's in Training |
Anticipated Separations FY 14/15 FY 15/16 |
Unanticipated Separations FY 14/15 FY 15/16 |
Current Unfilled Recruitment Project Funding |
Additional Recruitment Project Funding |
198 |
188 |
20 |
23 |
6 |
9 |
10 |
Variance |
-10 |
+10 |
-13 |
-19 |
-10 |
0 |
Recruitment Unit - Additional Temporary Public Safety Specialist Position
The DPS Recruitment Unit is currently comprised of one Public Safety Lieutenant supported by employees who are temporarily reassigned to that unit due to injury, illness or other circumstances which prevent them from working in their primary assignment. Historically, the Department staffed the unit with three full time employees: a Lieutenant, Public Safety Officer and a Community Service Officer (CSO), later reclassified as a Public Safety Specialist. This reliance on temporarily reassigned employees has resulted in operational challenges which have already delayed the recruitment and hiring processes. Unless additional staff is provided to this Unit, the number of additional recruitments and background checks anticipated over the next few years will undoubtedly exacerbate this situation. With Council approval, the Public Safety Specialist would be added for a period of three and a half years and dedicated to the Recruitment Unit to help work through this peak recruitment time to ensure consistency and efficiency in the recruitment and hiring processes.
FISCAL IMPACT
DPS plans for the future recruitment, selection and training of new officers over the next 20 years. A total of $54 million for recruitment and training of public safety officers is included in the FY 2014/15 budget over the twenty-year planning period. DPS budgets these funds in two-year allocations, in a series of recurring special projects rather than in the operating budget. This approach allows expenditures to fluctuate each year based on the number of recruitments. Additionally, project appropriations do not lapse at the end of the fiscal year as operational appropriations do. Since recruitment and training expenses span 12 to 18 months this allows the total recruitment class to be completed without an additional action to appropriate funds.
There are currently two active projects - FY 2013/14 Recruitment and Training for Sworn Officers and FY 2014/15 Recruitment and Training for Sworn Officers. There is also a project that acts as a placeholder for funding over twenty years, which provides funding for approximately five to six recruits per year.
As a result of the changes in the originally planned versus recently projected expenditures, budgets need to be revised. The FY 2013/14 project was originally set to fund nine recruits but thirteen are currently being funded by this project. Therefore, this project requires an additional $1,232,000 to support the additional four recruits. Expected completion is August 2015.
The FY 2014/15 Project was funded to support 18 recruits. With the addition of 10 recruits (detailed in the table in the discussion section of this report), the total project requires additional funds of $1,996,391 in FY 2014/15. The second half of the project falls into FY 2015/16 and will be adjusted accordingly with the FY 2015/16 Recommended Budget.
To cover the anticipated budget shortfalls staff recommends that the additional funding be appropriated from the General Fund Budget Stabilization Fund, and then reduced from the twenty-year recruitment project (as part of the FY 2015/16 Recommended Budget) leaving the total anticipated recruitment cost of $54 million unchanged. Fixed costs associated with these activities, which include management oversight and recruitment, continue to be part of the Department's operating budget. FY 2015/16 and future project allocations, including the additional three recruits for Fire Station 5 will be addressed through the regular FY 2015/16 Project Budget Cycle process. Budget Modification No. 28 has been prepared to accelerate funding to the current recruitment projects.
Bringing the funding forward, while not changing the twenty-year budget, still impacts cash flow in the General Fund. As a practical matter, this modification spends down reserves earlier than planned to provide cash to the projects now, and replenishes that cash later when future planned expenditures are reduced in the outer years of the long term recruitment project. In the interim, the General Fund loses interest earnings on the funds, enough so that the cumulative affect potentially reduces the General Fund Budget Stabilization Fund by as much as $4 million in the twentieth year. To offset some of this impact, staff is recommending that operating savings of $1M be included in the DPS Operating Budget in the current year, and next year. These savings are an estimation of how much the department will come in under budget and is based on the anticipation of at least four sworn vacancies over the next two years.
Budget Modification No. 28 which deals only with the FY 2014/15 Budget, has been prepared to appropriate additional funding to the recruitment projects and savings from the current Department of Public Safety Operating Budget. Future funding changes discussed in this report will be included with the FY 2015/16 Recommended Budget.
Budget Modification No. 28
FY 2014/15
|
Current |
Increase/ (Decrease) |
Revised |
General Fund |
|
|
|
Expenditures |
|
|
|
Project 826290 - FY 13-14 Recruitment and Training for Sworn Officers |
$1,229,605 |
$1,232,000 |
$2,461,605 |
Project 826300 - FY 14-15 Recruitment and Training for Sworn Officers |
$3,039,861 |
$1,996,391 |
$5,036,252 |
FY 2014/15 Department of Public Safety Staffing Savings |
$78,856,693 |
($1,000,000) |
$77,856,693 |
Reserves |
|
|
|
Budget Stabilization Fund |
$43,000,938 |
($2,228,391) |
$40,772,547 |
Recruitment Unit Staff
Adding a Public Safety Specialist to the Recruitment Unit will require increasing the number of budgeted Public Safety Specialist positions from two to three. The Public Safety Specialist would be hired as soon as possible. Public Safety Specialists cost a total of $126,737 annually. The current year cost will be absorbed by the Department, with the ongoing cost built into the FY 2015/16 Operating Budget.
Fire Station 5 Staffing
Initially, staff is recommending the addition of three authorized positions to staff the new Fire Station. Public Safety Officers currently cost $265,268 per year. At almost $800,000 per year escalated, the twenty-year cost of the three officers would add approximately $20 million to the bottom line of the General Fund. If the decision is to retain the Street Crimes Unit as budgeted, the cost to fund all six PSOs for the new station would double the amount to almost $1,600,000 per year. Given the additional full cost, staff is proposing an alternative approach that stabilizes staffing for Fire Station 5 and does not impact the City's fiscal condition to such extreme. If approved by Council, these three positions will be built into the FY 2015/16 Recommended Budget and General Fund Long Term Financial Plan.
As mentioned previously, FY 2015/16 and future project allocations for Recruitment and Training will be addressed through the regular FY 2015/16 Project Budget Cycle process. With the addition of Station 5 staff, future project allocations, specifically FY 2015/16 and FY 2016/17, will require funds to support the increased number of recruits.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting the Council agenda on the City's official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall, at the Sunnyvale Senior Center, Community Center and Department of Public Safety; and by making the agenda and report available at the Sunnyvale Public Library, the Office of the City Clerk and on the City's website.
ALTERNATIVES
1. Approve Budget Modification No. 28 to appropriate $3,228,391 to fund current recruitment projects.
2. Approve the addition of a full time Public Safety Specialist to the Recruitment Unit.
3. Approve the addition of three PSO IIs to the Public Safety authorized sworn level in the FY 2016/17 Budget for the purpose of staffing Fire Station 5 and include recruitment project funding for the three positions in the FY 2015/16 Recommended Budget.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Alternatives 1, 2 and 3: 1) Approve Budget Modification No. 28 to appropriate $3,228,391 to fund current recruitment projects; 2) Approve the addition of a full time Public Safety Specialist to the Recruitment Unit; and 3) Approve the addition of three PSO IIs to the Public Safety authorized sworn level in the FY 2016/17 Budget for the purpose of staffing Fire Station 5 and include recruitment project funding for consideration in the FY 2015/16 Recruitment Project.
This recommendation of adding three PSO IIs is based upon the realistic ability of the Department to recruit, hire and train for the large number of vacancies over the next two years. Staff has identified the need for additional staffing at the new Fire Station 5 as the top priority to ensure adequate public safety services to the community. The Street Crimes Unit also remains a top priority; however, the current recruitment and hiring challenges will result in a delayed operational deployment over the next two fiscal years.
This service level impact can be evaluated as part of the next operating budget cycle.
Staff
Prepared by: Nancy Thome, Senior Management Analyst, Public Safety
Reviewed by: Frank Grgurina, Director, Public Safety
Reviewed by: Teri Silva, Director, Human Resources
Reviewed by: Robert A. Walker, Assistant City Manager
Approved by: Deanna J. Santana, City Manager
ATTACHMENT
1. Fire Station 5 Staffing and Equipment Informational Memorandum