By Jonathan Friedman
Associate Editor

January 12, 2015 -- At a council meeting last August, City employees and union leaders spoke negatively about Santa Monica City Hall as a place where in-house jobs were disappearing, and outsourcing was becoming too common.

This perception could begin to change at least somewhat on Tuesday if the council votes to approve the staff recommendation for a three-year plan to convert some work that is contracted out into nearly 32 full-time equivalent City positions.

These new jobs would be in “maintenance, custodial, resource recovery, customer service and administrative areas,” according to a report from City staff.

“The recommended change would also impact the approximately 40-50 current as-needed employees currently filling these roles, who would not be guaranteed positions,” the report states.

It further states, “Staff believes that these changes, along with the adoption of a policy guiding the use of contracted and as-needed staff, can be incorporated in the City’s budget over time with no adverse impact on services. However, it is important that the changes occur incrementally.”

Santa Monica spends nearly $24 million annually on 43 contracts with companies for work costing more than $100,000. The staff report estimates this work would cost nearly $70 million if all of it was done in-house.

“This cost includes a … 19 percent increase in the City’s permanent work force, and an approximately 90,000-square-foot-increase in space to house new staff, vehicles and other equipment,” the report states.

The contract work that could be converted into in-house jobs does not meet the City’s criteria for what tasks could be outsourced, according to the report. 

This includes work that has “fluctuating or inconsistent demand,” limited daily hours or is part of a pilot program, among other features.

Staff has also recommended the council adopt an official policy regarding use of contracted work.

“A policy would reinforce current practice, and would clearly state council priorities and community values to current and potential City staff, contractors and the community,” the report states.

Several speakers at the August meeting said morale was low among City staff because of the outsourcing, and that the overuse of it went against Santa Monica's values.

“We should be very progressive and not the Walmart by the Sea,” said Karen Evans, who said she has been a City employee for 30 years. “We should respect our workers and have social and economic justice.

Kevin McKeown, at the time a regular council member and now the mayor, sympathized with the speakers and said major outsourcing began during the so-called Great Recession, when City officials were wary of pension payments and other commitments they might not have been able to meet.

“At this point, the economy has come back and we are blessed in Santa Monica that it has come back very well,” McKeown said. 

He continued, “And I now think there’s no question in my mind that we should be rethinking this policy and going back to figuring out how to make these truly be City job.”