Clampdown on City Spending Means Jobs Remain Unfilled : Oxnard: An employees’ official says the situation is damaging morale. The mayor says the problem is temporary.

In an effort to save money, the financially troubled city of Oxnard is avoiding hiring new employees to fill a range of vacant jobs spread evenly throughout the city’s 20 departments.

The number of unfilled jobs is now nearly 30% above average because of the cost-saving effort, which has angered some city employees. They complain that the hiring slowdown means a greatly increased workload for the current staff.

“It is causing a lot of morale problems,” said David Hartsuck, head of the city’s public employees association. “So, we are not happy at all.”

The city has about 1,000 employees and usually has about 50 to 60 vacancies throughout the ranks, said Dene Jones, personnel and employee relations director. The city is operating with 74 vacancies dispersed evenly throughout the city’s 20 departments, she said.

“Almost every department has at least one,” she said.

The vacancy rate does not take into account the 18.5 jobs that were eliminated during the June budget hearings, Jones said.

“It means that a staff that has been stretched thin is now stretched even thinner,” Jones said.

Mayor Nao Takasugi said he realizes that some employees might be unhappy with the situation and that morale among some staff members might be low. But he said the situation is only temporary and he encourages employees to “hang on for another year, by which time finances should improve.”

During the budget hearings, the City Council was forced to use revenue windfalls and personnel cuts to avoid a $2.8-million deficit. The council also adopted a cost-cutting policy that requires each department to cut expenses by at least 4% during the 1990-91 budget year.

During the previous budget year, the council adopted a 6% cost-cutting policy.

Most department heads meet the cost-cutting quota by leaving vacancies unfilled for several months, Takasugi said.

One vacancy that has put a heavy strain on staff members is the director’s post for the Department of Management and Budget. Bill Mayer resigned from the job in September to become head administrative officer for Mono County in Northern California.

Jones said the council has not instructed her to fill that vacancy.

Among Mayer’s duties was the drafting of quarterly budget reports for the City Council. Grace Magistrale, a management and budget analyst, said she has been assigned to complete the city’s first-quarter budget report in addition to completing her own duties.

Magistrale said Mayer’s duties have been divided among several department employees and added that there has been little discussion about replacing Mayer.

The Police Department, the city’s largest department, has 10 vacancies but is in the process of filling the positions, Assistant Police Chief William Cady said.

Most of the vacancies among the patrol units are filled with officers on overtime, Cady said, adding that the excess work can hurt police morale.

He said public safety is not in danger because the department can require officers to work overtime in an emergency.

Despite the cost-saving effort, Jones said the city has not implemented salary freezes.

The city has tried to fill some vacancies, but she said the increasing cost of housing in the area has discouraged many highly trained people from accepting the positions.

Hartsuck, an engineer who has worked in the city for 26 years, said his association “raised hell” when the City Council asked department heads for a 6% reduction in spending last year.

Hartsuck said the problem with asking employees to take on the duties of others is that “either the work gets half done or doesn’t get done at all.”