Yesterday’s afternoon workshop was very lengthy and also
very interesting. I started in a Municipal Policy Committee meeting.
The primary subject had to do with Pay Day Loans. Essentially there are two avenues to take on
this subject. The first is a land use
issue. This is an area that the city can
currently take a stance. It was my
suggestion that the city move ahead to utilize our zoning capability now. The Unified Development Code will be amended to
reflect another use of “Alternative Financial Establishments.” These businesses would have to be in a standalone
building, and cannot be within 1,000 ft of each other. They have to be 200 ft from residential homes
and at least 500 ft from major highway entrances. Although current establishments will be
grandfathered in at their current locations, the above will establish strict
guidelines for new applicants. The
second avenue will be business guidelines.
Since the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is currently looking
at guidelines concerning these businesses, it would be foolish for a city to
establish policy that would be overruled by their decisions within the
year. So this avenue is closed to the
city, for the time being.
The other area of interest had to do with the budget and the
wages for sworn and staff employees.
Trey Yelverton is trying to establish city employees’ wages at a level
commensurate with the amount of work expected of them. I pointed out that there is a discrepancy in
the manning level of the fire department.
We have the lowest number of firemen per capita of any department in the
metroplex, by a wide margin. Looking at
a manning document provided to me by the AFFA union, it was noted that the fire
department was only manned properly, at the 84 man level, 44.5% of the time. Then I compared the overtime numbers to the
rest of the metroplex, because that would be the only place that manning could
get its solution to the equation. Sure
enough, Arlington is second in overtime per capita, in the metroplex. Ft. Worth was number one. So I submit that this is an equation out of
equilibrium, and not the proper way to man a fire department. Now I am aware that the people that work the
overtime are doing the job and working for their pay, and that is
appreciated. But the numbers are way off
the charts, and they were brought to me in a book supplied by the AFFA.
The last item is the fact that Trey is trying desperately to get sworn
positions up to a 75% level over the next 5 years, while simultaneously getting
staff to 50%. This disparity is
untenable. I pointed out that turnover
is very low with sworn positions, and that the employees that are leaving are
mostly staff positions. Therefore, the
inconsistency in percentile ranking is a flawed hypothesis. What monies that are to be distributed need
to be targeted strategically in an effort to maximize their affect in certain categories and maintain job satisfaction.
K
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