Danville Public Works reports cost-cutting efforts

Danville City Council heard how the Public Works Department has cut costs since 1999 during a budget work session Tuesday.

Public Works Director Rick Drazenovich said the staff has been reduced from 249 in 1999 to its current level of 194, and employees have been cross-trained to handle a variety of tasks.

For example, Drazenovich said workers who normally use heavy equipment to do street repairs and maintenance can also handle house demolitions.

Public Works takes police cars with too much mileage to be suitable for patrols, cleans them up and uses them for the department’s lighter needs. Drazenovich estimated that, over time, more than $1.2 million has been saved by recycling those vehicles.

The department has also learned how to conserve its trash trucks by re-mounting the bodies on new chassis when the chassis wear out, Drazenovich said.

Last year, backyard trash pickup was stopped, which allowed crews to be reduced and inmates from the Adult Detention Center to be used, as they have been used for yard waste pickups. To follow public safety regulations, the inmates could not be used for backyard pickups because it would put them out of sight of employees trained to oversee them.

During his tenure, Drazenovich said the cemeteries have slowly become self-sustaining, with fees adjusted to cover actual costs. Operating the city’s eight cemeteries now requires little assistance from the city’s general fund, and Drazenovich’s goal is to operate them with no additional support.

Recycling efforts, from curbside pickup to turning yard waste into mulch offered to residents for free, save money because there are no fees for disposal, and non-yard waste recyclables actually add to the department’s income.

City Manager Joe King congratulated Drazenovich for his department’s “creative and innovative” approach to cost-cutting, and City Council members also applauded his efforts.

Councilman Fred Shanks said he was impressed with the department’s efforts, but questioned the use of city crews for building demolitions.

Shanks asked Drazenovich how much it costs the city to demolish houses being taken down as part of the blight reduction program. Drazenovich said it ranges from $1,200 to $2,200.

But, Shanks said, that only covers labor costs, not the overhead that private companies have to include in their bids to do such projects. Shanks asked for an accounting of how many houses have been demolished by the city compared to private contractors and a better breakdown of costs, which for private companies have to include what it costs them for retirement and insurance plans for their employees as well as equipment.

In a follow-up interview on Wednesday, Shanks said city taxpayers pay for the overhead, whether it is counted as a direct cost or not, and that the city should consider reducing street crews if they don’t have enough of that work to keep them busy.

“I support the good work Rick [Drazenovich] does, and his creative and frugal efforts to save the public money,” Shanks said. “But [balancing the budget] has to be about setting priorities and getting efficiencies in place first.”

Shanks said he wants to know whether reducing crews would be more cost-effective, saving the city all of the salaries and benefits of full-time staff, than using them to do work so many Danville companies that are hurting for business could do.

Deputy City Manager David Parrish said Wednesday that the information Shanks asked for is being assembled.