NEWPORT BEACH : City May Eliminate 7 Tree-Trimming Jobs

In an effort to save at least $123,000 a year, city officials will consider a proposal next week to eliminate seven workers from their 11-member tree-trimming crew.

The proposal, which will be reviewed by the City Council on Monday, is part of the city’s budget-cutting effort, which includes hiring private contractors to do the same work as city workers but at a lower cost.

This summer the city hired a firm to evaluate the city’s tree-trimming division. The analysis concluded the division is less productive and more costly than private contractors, according to a report issued by Integrated Urban Forestry Inc. based in Laguna Hills.

The city currently spends about $727,000 per year to have its crew move throughout the city pruning the 20,000 trees, said David Niederhaus, general services director. City workers cut each tree in the city on three-year intervals, but a private contractor might be able to tend to each tree once every two years and nine months, he said.

While cutting seven workers from that crew, city officials may keep the four remaining people to handle spot work. They would include an urban forester and three maintenance personnel and some equipment. The rest of the work would be contracted to private business. That could translate into a potential savings of about $123,000 annually, according to a separate report written by Niederhaus.

“This represents a real good balance” between private and public workers, Niederhaus said. “What I have tried to do is make something that is flexible.”

He added that four other cities in the county--Orange, Buena Park, Tustin and Costa Mesa--recently switched to the private sector to handle tree trimming.

The seven workers whose jobs would be eliminated each have a base salary of $25,582 to $34,094, Niederhaus said. They may be laid off or hired into other divisions of the city government.

If the proposal is adopted, a contractor could begin cutting trees as early as February, 1994, Niederhaus said.