Council rejects plan for hiring, spending freeze

The Modesto City Council has rejected a plan from top city officials to implement its freeze on hiring, promotions and spending.

The council approved the freeze Feb. 28 and directed City Manager Jim Holgersson to report back with a plan to carry it out. Council members declined to vote on the plan at their Tuesday meeting. Councilman Tony Madrigal made a motion to accept the plan, but the council could not vote because no other council member would second the motion.

“The motion dies for lack of a second,” Mayor Ted Brandvold said. The council’s action — or inaction — caught several city officials off-guard.

The council also held lengthy closed-session discussions before and after the meeting to evaluate Holgersson, confer with City Attorney Adam Lindgren acting as the city’s labor negotiator regarding Holgersson and two unrelated matters. The council took no reportable action. Brandvold declined to talk about the city manager’s performance because the council has not finished its discussions. Holgersson also declined to comment.

The freeze remains in place. It exempts the Police Department’s efforts to increase staffing from 218 to 240 officers and other essential positions approved by the council. Officials are expected to come back with another plan. Modesto adopted the freeze to help it prepare for pension costs that are expected to spike, starting in July 2018.

Brandvold said in an interview the plan needed work. He said it was clear other council members had concerns. There was not a lot of council discussion about this. The plan called for freezing 16 vacant positions, which would save the city $456,827 in its 2016-17 budget, which ends June 30. The plan included limiting purchases to goods and services essential to city operations and employee travel.

The plan recommended filling about 60 positions throughout the city, including fire captains and engineers, waste-water treatment operators and a senior financial analyst. The plan did not say how much those positions would cost. But officials said the positions were essential, with some of them state mandated and others needed to meet grant requirements.

But in response to a question from Councilwoman Kristi Ah You, Deputy City Manager Joe Lopez said the city would not grind to a halt if Modesto did not fill the positions in its current budget. She wanted to wait on making a decision until there is more information about the city’s upcoming 2017-18 budget. Budget workshops will be held in May.

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Council rejects plan for hiring, spending freeze."