Three
Yorba Linda topics merit ink this week: a raise and contract
extension for City Manager Mark Pulone, contracts for landscape
service for three of the city's largest maintenance areas and a look
at numbers under a revised tree removal policy.
--Pulone,
the city's top administrative officer since August 2013, was given a
2 per cent salary increase and a contract extension through 2020 on a
5-0 City Council vote. The $5,464 boost brings his annual salary to
$218,614.
The
increase, according to a report by City Attorney Todd Litfin, is
based on “merit and performance that correlates to increases in
cost-of-living expenses.” The extension also caps Pulone to a
maximum nine months severance pay if he's “terminated without
cause.”
The
city's website lists salary ranges for six
other management positions, as
well as 25 mid-management
and 69 miscellaneous
classifications. Retirement
plans and
benefits also are
explained.
To view,
click on “human
resources” under
“transparency in government.” Data
under “compensation” is
from 2012, but
my Sept. 4 column lists
salaries and benefits
for each council member (at
ocregister.com/yorbalinda click on “Yorba Linda Star,” then
“archives”).
--Three
renewed contracts with an annual cost of more than $700,000 for
landscape maintenance services in the city's cash-strapped Landscape
Maintenance Assessment District also earned unanimous council
approval.
The
pacts are for East Lake Village, Vista Del Verde and west Yorba Linda
areas, at yearly costs of $280,126; $248,805; and $185,039,
respectively. The first two were renewed without price hikes, while
the third has a permitted 1.4 percent consumer price index boost.
The city
has seven landscape maintenance packages that are bid for initial
three-year terms with two two-year renewals allowed. The December
2015-November 2017 renewals are the last for Rockey Murata (East
Lake, Vista Del Verde) and Nieves Landscape (west side).
“This
allows vendors to justify hiring the proper amount of labor and would
give the vendor the confidence needed to move forward on the purchase
of new equipment, which translates into better service,” noted a
report by Bruce Carleton, assessment district manager.
--An
April change in the city's longstanding tree replacement policy
distinguishes between removals due to “risk” and “convenience.”
“Prior
to the modifications of the policy there was no mechanism that
allowed staff to approve tree removal requests for non-risk
management purposes,” reported Director of Public Works Mike Wolfe.
So far,
the city has received 28 requests for removals in the new
“convenience” category, 22 in Landscape Maintenance Assessment
District areas and six in city rights-of-way. Three were approved and
19 are in various stages of the process.
All six
of the rights-of-way requests were withdrawn “once the requester
was made aware that they would be financially responsible for the
removals.”