Hollister may join forces with San Benito County’s Planning
Department or hire an outside consultant to oversee construction
requests now that impending layoffs and an early retirement
offering will deplete the city’s Building Division.
Hollister may join forces with San Benito County’s Planning Department or hire an outside consultant to oversee construction requests now that impending layoffs and an early retirement offering will deplete the city’s Building Division.
All five building inspectors and the head building official were either placed on the list of 36 citywide layoffs or recently accepted an offer for early retirement.
Plus, their department head, Bill Card, was also placed on the layoff list. And No. 2 in command, Planning Manager Mary Blais, recently accepted another job in Los Banos. That has left the Community Development Department with only one planner and two other Redevelopment Agency employees committed to staying beyond June 30.
Cooperation with the county would be a step toward a long-speculated, sweeping consolidation of city and county services. And either consolidation or hiring a consultant – the city may try employing both – would be extraordinary moves to potentially save money for a city that has run deficits the four past years.
Interim City Manager Clint Quilter said officials are “looking at a combination of filling positions and contracting.” And Mayor Tony Bruscia confirmed consolidation with the county is on the table.
It’s unclear how much money such a consolidation could save. And Hollister has not pitched a prospective plan to county management or the Board of Supervisors, according to County Administrative Officer Terrence May.
“But I think we’re interested in doing whatever we can jointly with the city to save the taxpayers money and maintain services,” May said.
The Building Division dilemma arose when all five building inspectors recently accepted early retirement, offered to 38 eligible employees to further trim the budget, as Hollister faces a multi-million dollar shortfall. Three of those five building inspectors also were placed on the list of 36 layoffs, so they were left with little choice but to accept early retirement.
The Building Division handles permit allocations and inspections of new and existing structures, and also helps code enforcement of substandard housing.
Depletion of its staff is a far cry from pre-building moratorium – inflicted by the state in 2002 after a 15-million gallon sewer spill – when developments were continually sprouting. Now, with the ban on permits, no new structures will go up until at least late 2005.
Throughout all city departments, 14 employees accepted early retirement. They included former City Manager Dale Shaddox and a trio of department heads – the planning director, fire chief and finance director – also placed on the infamous layoff list.
On Monday, the City Council approved spending up to $250,000 – it could be as low as $216,000 – a year over each of the next five years to pay those benefits.
Councilman Brian Conroy has previously advocated city-county consolidation. He also mentioned “several options” being considered. He declined to comment on specifics of those options and expects to have an announcement on a plan some time within the next six weeks.
Quilter said he hopes for answers even sooner – by the end of May. At Monday’s meeting, the Council scheduled its annual budget hearings for June 1-3.
“It’s a good direction to think of,” Conroy said. “We need to look at that in other areas as well.”
