FULLERTON : Council OKs Pruned Tree Trimming Budget

A proposal to reduce the city’s tree trimming budget has been approved by the City Council.

Drafted by the city’s tree trimmers in an effort to save most of their jobs, the proposal will save the city $212,583. It eliminates three jobs--those of a landscape supervisor, a maintenance worker and a senior maintenance worker.

Despite the cutback, city officials said the quality and quantity of work will remain the same.

Employees will still trim 9,072 street trees, remove 375 trees, replace 420 trees and provide emergency on-call services, tree maintenance officials said.

After a private contractor had offered to provide tree trimming services at a potential savings of about $232,000, employees formed a committee and came up with a rival proposal that would save almost as much money.

After comparing the two offers last week, City Council members voted 4 to 1 for the employees’ proposal.

Councilman Chris Norby cast the lone dissenting vote, saying he favored privatizing the tree services, which would save more money “in the long run. . . . It is something that we can’t afford to turn away at this time.”

But Councilman Don Bankhead countered that the city’s tree service employees “have the knowledge and the ability to do (the job) right, and we can retain much better control” by having the work done by employees rather than contractors.

Councilwoman Jan Flory praised the employees’ efforts to save their jobs. “I don’t think there’s a thing wrong with doing what you have to do to save your job,” she said.