CITY OF SUNNYVALE
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY
Office of the Director

June 16, 2003

TO: Robert S. LaSala, City Manager

FROM: Ernie Bakin, Director

As requested, this information is in response to Councilmember Fowler’s "Proposals for Budget Action" memo dated June 12, 2003, to a) Restructure Top Command, and b) Eliminate the OES Lieutenant.

Itemized below are my thoughts on the impact of eliminating an Assistant Director and the OES Lieutenant positions from the current plan.

Providing appropriate and effective command level leadership has been an ongoing concern at DPS for some time. The Assistant Director position was created to help in this regard. During the budget reduction submittal process, and given the magnitude of the City’s budget crisis, we proposed to eliminate the position of Assistant Director in favor of maintaining most of the current command structure, though other viable proposals existed. After further discussions with your office and with DPS personnel, it was decided that the best alternative involved a further flattening of the organization through elimination of the Captain II command level and the addition of another Assistant Director position. We believe this proposed structure will provide more accountability and better-coordinated command and control, and will provide more compatibility with the public safety model.

We submitted a revised budget reduction proposal which reflected these changes and generated a budget savings of approximately $112,000. This proposal was included as part of the budget savings for DPS.

The proposed structure includes two Assistant Director positions, elimination of the Captain II command level (equating to five positions), and the addition of two Captain I positions. Any further reduction of positions would have the following effects on department operations:

1. The current management span of control is too broad for effective command. Eliminating one or both of these positions from the plan would result in all of the Captains and the civilian managers reporting directly me or to the one remaining Assistant Director. The "two assistants" model provides the ideal organizational structure with operational responsibility on one side and administrative responsibility on the other with an approximately equal number of direct reports.
2. The cadre of management personnel at DPS has been historically low compared to our neighboring peer cities. While this condition is good from a budgetary point-of-view, the Department has suffered in its ability to provide adequate management oversight and mentoring regarding line personnel. Eliminating one or both of the Assistant Director positions will terminate the positive impact the proposed restructuring will have on leadership with the Department.
3. The current plan to realign the Captains by functional area and eliminating the Captain II positions at the program level is directly tied to the hiring plan for the Assistant Directors. This is not a service enhancement. The layers of management remain the same in Police and Fire Operations. This move consolidates responsibilities at a higher level in the organization. On the administration side of the Department it more clearly addresses the span of control issue, as Dispatch, Records, Property/Evidence, analytical staff, hiring, selection, training, OES, Crime Prevention, vehicle abatement, etc. are now consolidated under a unified command. By setting up the organization in this way we are returning to a clearer "public safety" management model with all police and fire operations under the control of one executive officer.
4. Eliminating one or both of the positions from the plan will take away the opportunity we have for positive impact in the area of mentoring. A fully developed organizational structure puts in place senior management staff to whom others can look up to and learn from. The proposed structure also provides the Director with an Executive Committee of the top three ranking members of the Department to develop policy and form the core of the leadership component of the organization. The Assistant Chiefs will provide needed leadership for the Captains under their control, many of whom are new in their positions and require development and mentoring. Effective management practice at this level will foster good management practices between Captains and Lieutenants. I see this as an essential component that is absent from our current organization. This structure will provide a clear career path. In time it will evolve into an effective command and control setup that works as well in administrative processes as it does in our long history of superior performance when responding to calls for service.

1. Eliminating the OES Lt. position could have a negative impact on the SNAP program. We have worked hard to revive this program and feel that eliminating the Lt. could have a negative impact on the momentum we have generated. This momentum is important to us because of our current focus to strengthen the City workforce component of the broader OES effort. Further, we hope that success in these areas will put is in a position to revive programs (upon Council direction) aimed at the remaining two constituent groups that are currently not getting our attention, commercial businesses and the schools.
2. The importance of planning and executing a citywide drill is at the top of our priority list for this function. Eliminating this position will seriously threaten this effort. Moreover it is essential that this training be as effective and meaningful as it can be. Eliminating this resource, especially the sworn position, will affect the quality of this essential training exercise.
3. The issue of "rebuilding" as a "service expansion" assumes a limited view of this position. The OES Lt. is an important program administrator whose duties go far beyond SNAP. The Lt. is responsible for the EMO and its effective application. The Lt. handles the reporting for the function, in addition to developing and managing grant funding opportunities. In that regard, we play a role in the Santa Clara County Grant Approval Authority. Involvement with this group requires local and regional coordination responsibilities.
4. We have found that having a sworn officer in this position is essential to the effective participation in regional cooperation efforts such as the one mentioned above. There are many reasons for this, including the operational interface between other police agencies and fire departments. Even within our own organization, like running the EMO, it is clear that command experience, credibility in the community and a "real world" perspective are essential ingredients it effective emergency management. Losing this position means that we lose these essential interface components.
5. The Lt. in this position has done a good job to revive the program. I would like to see this effort to continue to evolve to the point where it is a stop on the career path for officers wanting to promote up through the ranks. We are well on our way to making this a reality by the current work being done by Lt. Lamar.

I hope this answers your inquiry. If you have questions, please contact me by cell phone.

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