By Sarah Cooper

scooper@dailysparkstribune.com

SPARKS — One hundred seventeen city employees, five questions and more than 500 suggestions are attempting to help Sparks out of a budget shortfall.

In recent months, the city of Sparks brought together a random sampling of 117 employees from across city departments to form focus groups and come up with creative ideas to both trim budgets and bring in more money to the city’s coffers.

These same employees, and many others, are currently being asked to carve about $800,000 from already lean paychecks in order to plug a budget deficit of about $4.9 million over the next biennium. Negotiations with employees are ongoing, according to city staff, but if agreements are not reached before April 1, layoffs may be necessary.

“It certainly motivates people,” said Chris Syverson, Sparks human resources manager and the de facto head of the focus groups. “People will do whatever it takes to save their jobs or someone else’s.”

Their focus group ideas for both bringing in revenue and cutting costs are contained in a 20-page report that was presented to the City Council on Monday. City staff are now in the process of evaluating some suggestions, after being given direction to do so by the council.

The ideas ranged from renting paddle boats at the Sparks Marina to eliminating company cell phones to charging a fee for Fire Department medical calls.

“Part of the process was silent brainstorming, with a requirement that you could not be judgmental,” Syverson said.

“No negative or positive comments,” she added about the process, meaning all ideas were taken no matter how seemingly far fetched or mild mannered they were.

Some suggested setting up a city-owned towing facility and garbage company to bring in more revenue. Other revenue suggestions were city-sponsored license plates and the creation of a fire district.

Some of the other 500-plus revenue suggestions included:

• Charge parking fees at the Sparks Marina

• Charge parking fees at city garages

• Charge for parking at special events

• Rent paddle boats, kayaks and wind surfing at the marina

• Hold a large winter special event

• Increase the number of large special events

• Turn off courtyard fountain permanently

• Have the fire department charge for medical calls

• Sell bonds to the public with interest

• Sell advertisements at parks

• Waive business fees for the first six months until businesses become established

• Annex Spanish Springs

• Develop a sliding scale for special events fees (big vendors pay more while small vendors pay less)

• Charge fee for dog walkers who don’t pick up after their dogs

• Set up a toll road

• Increase fines for driving under the influence

Under opportunities for reducing costs, some of the hundreds of suggestions included:

• Having either a cell phone or a desk phone, not both

• Paperless bills/payroll checks

• Pay sewer bills at satellite locations such as grocery stores

• Evaluate city storage costs

• Move to xeriscape

• Close swimming at marina and pools

• Obtain Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land and rent out for camping.

• Collect special event fees up front instead of billing

• Cut branding campaign

• Close fire station 5 (on Vista Boulevard)

• Eliminate money spent on food and water for meetings (in testing phase)

• Privatize city services

• Turn off park lights after 10 p.m.

• Turn off every other street light at night

• Install motion-sensitive light switches

• Start an employee work from home option

• Freeze parks construction

• Pass Public Employee Retirement (PERS) plan cost increases on to employees

These are just a fraction of the suggestions made. The ideas came out of 11 focus group sessions with 117 employees total coming to those sessions and many more submitting their suggestions via e-mail, Syverson said. Each group was randomly selected from all departments, employee classifications and shifts.