As a follow up to a comment response from my previous post, I thought I'd do some research about the size of Government in comparison with Newport Beach's neighbors. It is very well known that our City Hall is overcrowded with Government Employees, which results in a "poor work conditions," and "poor worker morale" and is "an embarrassment for those work for the City or do work for City." This overcrowding has created trailers on the lawn of City Hall and, coupled with the impending Earthquake and/or Tsunami which will destroy our current City Hall, has spawned the huge effort to have the City Hall moved and rebuilt. It has also created a fun summer of the City Hall vs. Park debate/arguments/petition signing.
But before we do that, here are some facts, taken directly from the City's websites:
City of Newport Beach - Est. Population - 84,218 + City Workforce - 944.20 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees = 89 residents per employee
City of Costa Mesa - Est. Population - 113,440 + City Workforce - 700.69 FTE employees = 162 residents per employee
City of Irvine - Est. Population - 202,079 + City Workforce - 978.33 FTE employees (*contracts out for fire and library services) = 206 residents per employee.
City of Huntington Beach - Est. Population - 202,788 + City Workforce - 1105.5 FTE employees = 183 residents per employee
Note #1 - Irvine has been controlled by the very liberal Emperor Agran and his Democrat City Council majority on and off since 1978.
Note #2 - Huntington Beach has also been controlled by a Democrat City Council for the past few years.
Note #3 - Newport Beach's City Council has been Republican controlled for many years now, including a "narrow" 6-1 Republican current edge.
I know that we in Newport Beach demand more than our neighbors, but I don't see the other Cities falling apart from lack of City services.
Is the size of our government too big? Do we need a larger City Hall to accommodate for future employee growth? Where are the "Republican" voices of the our City's Republican Party of Orange County Deputy Chair and her fellow "Conservative" council members?
Friday, June 29, 2007
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4 comments:
Interesting numbers. Costa Mesa contracts out it's trash service and the Sanitary District (sewers) is a separate entity and not budgeted by the city. CM also contracts out it's legal services - the City Attorney is a contract employee, so doesn't show up in the headcount. And then there's the budgets. Costa Mesa's new budget will be $131 million. Newport Beach's is $208 million. The question here, as I see it, is: IF you need a new City Hall, where is the best place to build it. Building it at the current location requires relocating the city employees twice - if you can find space for temporary quarters. Maybe the "library" site isn't the best one - I happen to think it probably is - but somewhere in or around Newport Center sure does make lots of sense.
And that's the magic question - IF you need a City Hall, where do you put it? Unfortunately, I think we are past the IF part considering that even the most Greenlight people appear to be in favor of a new one. And I agree that relocating the employees twice would be a true waste of $. I still think that we should put the screws on the Irvine Company. Anyway, I guess we'll find out the location after the next election.
Btw - I stayed away from adding up the budget numbers for the other cities because I KNOW that would have been bad news for Newport's overspending...$131 million for Costa Mesa huh? For 30,000 more residents than Newport? Uhhhhgggg...
Don't despair. Remember, the average home value in Newport Beach is at least four times that of Costa Mesa. That's lots of bucks. You've got the biggest volume Mercedes dealership and the new Lexus store is going to turn in huge numbers, too. The fact is, Newport Beach is a much more wealthy city than Costa Mesa and the money spent on streets and infrastructure reflects that. Hard as we try over here in "Goat Hill", we just cannot catch up on street maintenance, for example. More bucks would help, but we can't even agree to bump up the Transient Occupancy Tax from it's spot as the lowest in Orange County - by far. A couple point hike would still make it the lowest, but could generate a couple million in revenue - from folks just passing through! Arrrggghhh!
Good catch and good job. It would be interesting to go back and take into account the number of contract people who are not included in the numbers but I suspect that it's not significant.
With no basis other than my belief what we have here is people living in quarters they don't think befits their status as "leaders" and they want more without coming up with more solutions other than spending more money.
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