FYE 14 Budget prelim - City of Norman

without these personnel. The General Fund budget will be reduced by approximately$700,000 per year by making these reductions.The proposed FYE 2014 budget also includes a one and one-half percent (1.5%) acrossthe-boardreduction in allocations in the Services and Maintenance and Supplies andMaterials categories of expenditure. This direction will reduce the General Fund budgetby approximately $227,750, but will necessitate departmental managers to closelymonitor their expenditures to stay within the reduced budget allocations.Personnel costs are the major driver of expenditures in the General Fund. A majorcomponent of personnel costs is the cost of benefits provided to City of Normanemployees. The fiscal year 2013-2014 budget is based on the following assumptions forpersonnel costs: Budgeted positions are assumed to be filled for the full fiscal year; Employees are assumed to receive a merit step raise, if they would qualify; An Employer Contribution of $900 per month (single) and $1543 per month(family) for health insurance; An Employer Retirement contribution of 8.5% of payroll for Norman EmployeesDefined Contribution Retirement System members; A state mandated Employer Pension contribution of 13% of payroll for Firefighterand Police Pension System member employees; Federally-mandated Social security and Medicare contributions for all non-fireemployees; An assumption of $800,000 in “Employee Turnover Savings” is built into thebudget (approximately 1.6% of Salary and Benefit Category allocations), underthe assumption that the net impact on the General Fund of the savings achieved byemployees leaving during the course of the year and hiring replacementemployees at a lower salary at a later time will outweigh the cost of one-timepayouts (accrued leave payouts, etc.) to employees who leave, by $800,000; Other allowances and payments, as mandated by union contracts and City policiesare anticipated and included in budgeted benefit costs (approximately 80% of theCity of Norman’s workforce is unionized).Taken together, benefit costs make up over 30 percent of the total compensation cost forthe average City employee. Great attention is given to ways of moderating these benefitcosts.The City of Norman has taken several actions to position itself for future growth in areasthat will hopefully positively impact General Fund revenues. First, the City Council hascontinued to show a strong commitment to improving the business climate in Norman.Through the hiring of a Development Coordinator (position added to the budget in FYE2013) to work with the development community, business and project owners, and staffto enhance City development processes and improve customer service, the Council hasshown its willingness to improve Norman’s business climate. The Council further passedseveral amendments to regulations to streamline platting, zoning, and developmentprocesses, during FYE 2013.vii