As most San Jose departments shrink,…
As most San Jose departments shrink, Environmental Services grows
By John Woolfolk | jwoolfolk@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
June 4, 2011 at 10:21 a.m.
Chronic budget crunches have shrunken most San Jose city departments, with the overall workforce contracting 16 percent in the last four years and even cops facing layoffs.
But that's not the case with Environmental Services, the department that oversees garbage, recycling, water and sewers. Its workforce of about 500 will be 5 percent bigger this year than four years ago, while staffing will have fallen 37 percent for libraries and 40 percent for parks.
A sanctuary amid the slaughterhouse, Environmental Services has avoided drastic cuts because it is funded by garbage, recycling, water and sewer fees rather than taxes on depressed property and sales that supply the city's deficit-plagued general operating fund. But it's drawing increasing scrutiny as cuts mount elsewhere and rates charged to residents climb. The City Council will vote on further fee increases June 14.
"I'm a little concerned with the growth," said Mayor Chuck Reed, who is calling for city audits. "We need to take a look and make sure we're appropriately staffing it and paying the right amount of attention to it."
Environmental Services Director John Stufflebean said the staffing levels reflect upcoming infrastructure projects, state mandates and the need to communicate with residents and businesses about issues that affect operations. In addition, some parks staffers his department pays to maintain the grounds at the wastewater plant were recently shifted over to his department.
"Our objective is to be staffed appropriately to accomplish our missions," Stufflebean said.
Among areas of concern that have arisen on the Environmental Services budget:
Environmental Services' proposed upcoming budget of $205 million will be 15 percent bigger than just four years ago. By comparison, the $146 million transportation and maintenance budget will be 6 percent smaller; the $25 million library budget will be 26 percent smaller; and the $50 million parks and recreation budget will be 29 percent smaller. But Environmental Services, which has provided a soft landing for workers cut from other city programs, will have 10 staffers this year assigned to public relations and outreach work, about as many as all other city departments combined.
San Jose residents have seen their sewer bills jump 73 percent in seven years and may see them climb 35 percent more in the next four years to pay for a planned overhaul of the 56-year-old Water Pollution Control Plant, known at City Hall as the WPCP, or "weepy seepy."
Estimates for modernizing the plant have jumped from $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion, prompting Councilman Don Rocha to ask whether it was "gold-plated." In addition, plans for millions of dollars on public art during the plant's makeover, including $65,000 last year for an "artist in residence" to photograph it, raised hackles.
The city's "Recycle Plus" garbage rates have jumped 50 percent since 2004 — from $18.30 to $27.50 a month for standard 32-gallon cart residential service. The council June 14 is scheduled to consider an additional 9 percent increase effective in August.
Stufflebean said staffing for both solid waste and water service has remained flat. A proposed 5.9 percent water rate increase simply reflects increases in wholesale supply costs, he said, adding that rates are 29 percent lower than those of the private San Jose Water Company.
The rising garbage rates, he said, largely reflect recent spikes in fuel costs, which are measured each December under contracts with trash haulers. Staffing has risen for both storm sewer and sewage treatment operations, Stufflebean said. The council June 14 will consider raising rates for both 3 percent.
Stufflebean said the increases reflect both infrastructure replacement costs and state permitting requirements designed to reduce pollution in the San Francisco Bay. The new requirements include a step-up of inspections of businesses to monitor what they are dumping into the wastewater system.
Stufflebean also noted that because his employees take the same pay and benefit cuts as other city employees, that has allowed the city to keep storm and sewer rate increases this year about half what was initially proposed.
Still, Councilman Kansen Chu asked at a recent meeting why the department needed so many public-relations staffers. Stufflebean said that with essentially four utility programs providing water, trash-hauling, sewage treatment and storm drains, Environmental Services needs to communicate with its customers about matters that can affect operations and city costs.
That includes contacting some 2,000 dental offices about keeping mercury amalgam filling residue from washing down the drains and ending up in the San Francisco Bay; urging water conservation; telling restaurants and homeowners not to dump grease down the drains; and making sure homeowners understand recycling rules.
"What goes in the garbage and what goes in the recycling, that's essential to our operation," Stufflebean said. "If we don't do it, people put the wrong things in, and it'll cost us more."
But Chu said the number of communications staff "sounds off the alarm."
"I understand that, yes, there's a lot of outreach to the community," Chu said. "But a lot of that outreach is repetitive. I don't want to micromanage that department, but I do want to point it out that they seem to be very heavily loaded in this area."
In addition to asking for city audits, Reed said he will encourage other cities that jointly use and pay for the wastewater treatment plant, such as Milpitas, Santa Clara and Cupertino, to help monitor spending on the $1.8 billion plan as it moves forward.
The department has already cut the arts budget for the sewage plant makeover for the next five years from $2.8 million to $450,000 after determining that city rules requiring a percentage of the budget for new projects to go toward art didn't apply to a remodel. But Reed says any money spent on art for a sewage plant is difficult to explain to ratepayers.
"It's hard to justify spending sewer line money on art," Reed said. "The public is finding that not understandable."
John Woolfolk | Reporter
John Woolfolk is a reporter for the Bay Area News Group, based at The Mercury News. A native of New Orleans, he grew up near San Jose. He is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and has been a journalist since 1990, covering cities, counties, law enforcement, courts and other general news. He also has worked as an editor since 2013.
jwoolfolk@bayareanewsgroup.com
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