Reset Revealed: San Francisco City Employees Speak Out!

Ideas on balancing the City’s budget and lowering deficit.

Reset San Francisco was recently forwarded a document containing suggestions from the City’s ImproveSF program, where city employees discuss online how they would balance the city’s budget. And these suggestions prove San Francisco city employees are ready to roll up their sleeves and get some work done! Now let’s see if the elected officials are willing to take some of this pretty explosive advice.

This idea of soliciting feedback from the people who actually work for the city is one of Mayor Ed Lee’s best. Rather than sit back while the same old San Francisco power players dominate the debate, here are ideas to improve our city from the people who know the best (and worst) of city government.

Who better than San Francisco city employees to spark this debate?

These public servants know City Hall inside and out. Their ideas are essential if we want to tackle the incredible challenges that face our city.

Reset San Francisco was started to ensure that the voices of all San Franciscans can be heard when it comes to improving our city and improving the way we run our city government. By creating an online community where people can engage each other in substantive discussion we can encourage more voices and create better ideas in city government.

So take a look – here are the ideas submitted by city employees. As we said, some of them are pretty explosive. Go ahead and comment and let us know what you think of these ideas. (By the way – Reset as a whole will agree with some and disagree with others. But the point is to let everyone be heard – so here is an opportunity for all of us to hear what the employees are saying.)

Only one note, we redacted the names. And we fully redacted only one post, which mentioned one department head by name. Not that such feedback isn’t important, but we want to keep the discussion focused on the process right now rather than the people.

So – take a peek inside the Employee Suggestion Box and let us know what you think!

Suggestions Citywide

22 Voted

Discontinue Printed paychecks

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Printed pay checks are a waste of resources and detrimental to the environment. Promote use of existing online site to access pay information.
Read More | 6 Comments
Citywide

21 Voted

12 B compliant rule

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Get rid of the “12B compliant rule”, which makes the City purchase materials through third party vendors, charging an additional 30% to the cost. This rule requires that all vendors the City purchases from, offer their employees “domestic partner” benefits. If they do not offer those benefits, the City cannot purchase from them.
Think about how much money is going to these third pray vendors. If the citizens of San Francisco were informed of how many MILLIONS of dollar have been flushed out of the budget for this “RULE” we would have an uprising.

Read More | 6 Comments
Citywide | purchasing – citywide All

Comments

Written by [REDACTED] 12 days ago
In addition to this sometimes it is easier to make a simple purchase. For example I just had to purchase a key. To walk over and purchase one key on my break it cost the city $1.35. However the accounting people were flipping out because I did not use standard procedure which would have cost the city, about $240 for a key. Billing rate(BR)one hr to go and come back, $112, BR of one lost hour of work $112, plus gas for the truck (2 gal) $8.00, plus cost of key. Lets be realistic with our purchases. As long as reciepts are provided the accountability is there.
– 0 +

Written by [REDACTED] 12 days ago
oh, and let’s not talk about the city accounts payable department….they might misplace their abacus….seriously, could they be retrained to some up to current standards of online receipt matching and verification? Then they would have time to handle your cost-saving purchase as a petty cash transaction at your department level.
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Written by [REDACTED] 12 days ago
What is particulary maddening is knowing that 12b is supposedly about “Social Justice” when in reality it is yet another way for contractors to game the system. How is social justice achieved when the only result is that third party contractors bilk the City at a rate of 10 to 35% per purchased item? In my department these 3rd party contractors are referred to as pass throughs.
– 0 +

Written by [REDACTED] 12 days ago
By eliminating such 12B compliance rule, we can eliminate the entire department, Human Rights Commission, the huge number of work hours for OCA and from various departments. (The affected staff can be transferred to other departments or divisions when new positions are needed for more productive works.) It can release the tension from users, the fiscal staff involved for procurement, HRC & OCA. Everyone will work happier & the vendors who make use of the compliance rule to make excessive profit are the only losers.
– 0 +

Written by [REDACTED] 9 days ago
12B is a political, not economic measure. It favors the domestic partner agenda, not the lowest cost agenda. The amount the city spends attempting to influence social norms is incredible. The city needs to think economically, not socially.

Written by [REDACTED] 5 days ago
There is a lot of social legislation that costs the City time and money without any direct benefit to the City – 12b, 12u, 6.22e, 21c (to name a few)

Often, in addition to being costly, the programs are not working. I would be interested to see how many new vendors achieved 12b compliance last year. Or how many Chinese workers got a raise because of 12u.

19 Voted

Top 3 Suggestions

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Studies show working a 4 day, 10 hour schedule is cost effective in many ways. Employees get more work done with a longer work day ,less traffic on the road so less impact on the enviroment,the high cost of fuel alone would be a great savings and employee absentee and moral improve. Many City and Counties have made this change.

3rd party Vendors cost this City Millions in unnecessary spending.

18 Voted

Decrease Health Benefits for City Commissioners

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
City Commissioners are allowed to participate in the City’s health service system. This is a rich benefit for a few hours of public service each month.

16 Voted

Prop F Employees

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
If you eliminate the Prop. F employees you can save money on salaries and pensions, it’s not fair to have people getting two incomes from the City … one should be enough …

16 Voted

Reduce Top Salaries

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
We are public servants. I’m sure we can find dedicated public servants willing to run MUNI and other departments for well below the high compensation currently offered.

16 Voted

Make Money, Raise Pride – Sell City Gear – Apparel

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
San Franciscans and employees want to support their city and wear the city seal on their clothes, as a badge of honor, unity, and pride. Invest in some t-shirts and sweatshirts, and pins, use our printing department to print the city seal, and sell them on-line or at a city department. “Gold in Peace,Iron in War.” People are happy to have a job and are proud of where they work and live.

15 Voted

Remove Prop F

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Too many people are retiring only to return as a Prop F six months later. I am not saying that the knowledge that these people have is not valuable but the city cannot save money by having staff double dip. At the same time many of these employees are simply political appointees that get the Prop F position because of who they know.

15 Voted

Abandon 12B Compliance – The Costly White Elepant in the City

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
12B compliance is something which has NOT accomplished the intended goals, and must be abandoned if SF will ever want to become a solvent city again.

The 12B Compliance requirement which SF imposed upon business transactions some years ago IS the expensive white elephant standing the in the middle of the room which no one wants to mention.

The 12B Compliance requirement gave rise to many “hollow DBA companies” which are simply middlemen who mark up the cost of products bought indirectly from the same sources as the City used to buy directly from.

The mark-ups applied to everything this city pays for is phenomenal, anywhere from 30% to 150% added to the real world pricing. Add that to the problem of a devalued currency topped with inflation, and there is NO justification to pay for this failed policy forever.

14 Voted

Reward good work

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
A form of a bonus should be given to those who bring in projects under budget and/or early. This bonus can be in the form of pay, time off, even lunch. Currently there is nothing to motivate employees to hold a high standard

In the private sector if you don’t do your job they let you go. This simply does not happen in the City. I have seen many new people start off motivate and working hard only to see the person next to them not cary their own weight. Then the mind set kicks in of why should I kill myself if the person next to me does not do anything and gets the same pay as me?

14 voted

Sell items that are in storage

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
The storage spaces in a few City buildings are filled with all sorts of items that could be sold. There are old computers, monitors, desks, chairs, and many other items. In the case of 170 Otis, last I checked, there was even a boxing ring w/ sumo suits.

If the City of SF sold all of the items that are taking up space in the storage rooms not only could it get the proceeds from the sale, but it could free up those storage spaces to be used for other purposes.

14 Voted

Office Lighting

Posted by [REDACTED] 44 days ago (Suggestion)
Keep off some of the fluorescent lights in office spaces, especially in those areas which have natural sunlight.

13 Voted

Statewide Travel Program

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)

All City and County departments should coordinate all employee related travel through the California State Travel Program. The SF Human Services Agency (H.S.A.) converted to State Travel Program in September of 2008 and has cut airline ticket costs in half, saving the City upward of $120,000 per year. A few City Departments have converted to the State Travel Program, but it should be mandatory for all City and County departments to do so. The California State Travel Program assists all CA government travelers’ needs by obtaining the most economical rates and fares available through the use of contracted travel-related services.

13 Voted

save budget

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
ALL CITY DEPARTMENT HEAD AND/OR MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL, EITHER ELECTED OR APPOINTED OFFICIAL WHO MAKES OVER $180,000 SHOULD TAKE A 10% PAY CUT.

THEY SHOULD PAY FOR A HIGHER RATE OF HEALTH AND OTHER RELATED BENEFIT.

THEY SHOULD NOT DRIVE THE CITY VEHICLE 24/7 UNLESS IS DEEMED NECESSARY.

NO EXECUTIVE SECRETARY FOR THE DEPARTMENT HEAD.

BEGIN TRULY TRIMMING THE UPPER MANAGEMENT’S POSITION

13 Voted

Reduce Calendar Purchasing

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
Instead of giving employees the option to get a “city” calendar and a day planner, allow no more than one calendar per person. Train staff to use online calendars, such as those on Lotus notes or Google, so they may schedule electronically (it’s free and saves paper)!

12 Voted

Revamp and restructure SF City Worker Salary Scale

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Revamp and restructure the citywide salary scale for all citywide departments.

Reduce salaries of the top 500 highest earning SF public servants by 15-18 percent.

Eliminate unnecessary classifications or classifications that have too many positions. For example how many Assistant Directors/Managers/Supervisors does a department need? Simply put there are way too many people at the top in many citywide departments. Cut the fat and the unnecessary bureaucracy.

12 Voted

SF City Online Access

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)

In this electronic age, almost everyone has an online access to just about anything. Why not have a website for the public (i.e. taxpayers), where they can register and have a secure login/password. Here they can do all their business with the city, such as, view tax bills, view payment history, make payments, receive notices, update personal information, etc. They can opt to go paperless and receive notices/alerts via e-mail. The public can also have access to various forms where they can complete and submit online. With this system, we can save a lot of time and manpower on printing, stuffing envelopes, opening mails, dealing with return mails and phone calls. Save money on paper, paper and paper, ink, and postage.

This will definitely require resources to get implemented, but in the long run, this will help the city cut its’ budget. It is servicing the public at a whole new level.

12 Voted

Get Rid of 12B Compliance

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

This is a total waste of money. When someone can add 10% to an item just because they full fill illegal mandates. The market to purchase should be free of political influences.Anyone should be able to full fill a item request and fair markets should dictate the lowest purchase price for that or those items. This would save money in purchase price, in employees salaries who have to approve things and paperwork.

12 Voted

Cell Phones

Posted by [REDACTED] 10 days ago (Suggestion)

We don’t have to recall all cell phones issued by the city. But it would e wise to review list and re-justify why an employee needs a cell phone. Also, review the usage and charges. When changing a number due to stolen or lost unit, make sure they are deactivated. Some employees have more than 1 cell numbers and use only 1 account. The providers continue charging the monthly fees even if the cell phones are not being used.

12 Voted

Reducing the Budget by Starting at the Top!

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

Police and fire dept. brass should have their pensions reduced. They are far exceeding their pension caps due to loopholes that should be closed. Their pensions should only be based on their last year BASE pay, EXCLUDING overtime. They work overtime on their last year of work and take advantage of this loophole. For those who’ve been overpaid on their pensions, they should have to refund the city of the over payments.

Offer tax incentives to businesses so people without jobs can get some work and get off assistance. Give businesses who hire people who’ve been out of work for more than a year and a tax break to generate more jobs.

Cut PHC at the general assistance office. We can’t afford it!

Cut or reduce executive compensation. Let them use their own cars money they will be more thrifty with their own funds. Cut off their expenditures and waste.

12 Voted

Save money

Posted by [REDACTED] 10 days ago (Suggestion)
Employees who want to work part time should be allowed & encouraged.

12 Voted

Pay Cuts, Accountability and Fairness = BIG MONEY SAVINGS

Posted by [REDACTED] 5 days ago (Suggestion)

Reduce salaries by 30% for highest paid department heads, directors, managers, assistant managers in the city. Some positions such as Principal Administrative Analyst are making over 100K. That is outrageous, especially since we are civil servants. This is a major problem because the people at the top are enjoying many benefits as well as high pay.

There is is just way way too much red tape bureaucracy and politics when it comes to the city pay scale.

The city work environment has fostered this idea of automatic pay increases, low key accountability and lots of red tape bureaucracy.

In the end the city becomes the loser as a result of this.

12 Voted

Get rid of the reams of paper departments still use

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Departments *still* use tons of paper –not to mention the amount of paper used when editing, printing drafts, etc. Implement an intranet or some sort of electronic document management process for documents, contracts and correspondence. 90% of the paper used for “office work” is not necessary and some employees use it as an excuse to avoid technology.

12 Voted

Stationary for the Politicians ???

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)

Why does the City pay for any new elected official to purchase new ‘ stationary’ letterhead, envelopes, pre-printed paper just to name a few. This seems like at least an annual $500,000. expense to the city. Why not make the City’s stationary standardized across the board. Why not have the “Mayor’s Office ” instead of Mayor Ed Lee;s Office formally Gavin Newsom’s . All the excess is either tossed or donated never to be completely utilized and worse $$$$$$ down the drain. This would definitely decrease the city’s cost and not place the expense of “Advertisement” of the elected Officials on the backs of the City budget. There would be larger purchases and thus more discounted and even if a new Mayor came in the “paper products’ would remain the same…no ADDED EXPENSE”!!!!!! An official notification in this day and age from the City & County of San Francisco could also help on fraud.

11 Voted

Improve city worker awareness and use of SF Environment’s Virtual Warehouse

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
We can cut costs by sharing resources. I think the SF Environment’s virtual warehouse website could be improved to be more user-friendly and use web 2.0. The City should make a strong effort to encourage departments to use this site to share resources rather than ordering excess supplies. This would save money and benefit the environment.

11 Voted

Eliminate Paper Payroll Advices

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
The City should move to a paperless payroll advice system. Those who want to receive paper advices could be charged a fee.

11 Voted

Eliminate 3rd party vendors

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
Why do we need to use 3rd party vendors instead of dealing with the companies directly? We need to pay so much money for the unnecessary markups.

11 Voted

Charge City employees for parking on City properties
Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

Currently many City employees enjoy free parking at City facilities such sewer treatment plants, MUNI yards, schools, maintenance yards, fire stations, etc. The City could receive additional revenue by charging employees for the privilege of parking on City property.

Charging for parking would encourage the use of car-pooling and the use of public transportation-helping the environment in the process. Verified car-poolers could be given a discount or free parking.

Lastly, charging for parking at the “going rate” where there is currently free parking on City property would make it fair for all City employees since many City offices do not offer free parking. Instead we have to pay the “going rate” when one drive to work and wants to park one’s vehicle.

11 Voted

Paper Paychecks and Direct Deposit Advices

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Move all employees to direct deposit and for those enrolled in direct deposit, eliminate paper advices.

10 Voted

Together, yes we can save

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Here are suggestions:

1. All city employees who earn more than $100K a year, should be cut 5% a year.

2. All city employees, earn more than $150K a year, should be cut 10%

3. No body in the entire public sectors should earn more than 200K a year. It is a crime for the public! It is a rip off to the taxpayers! Do what to earn this much?

4. No body in SFUSD should make more than $150K,

10 Voted

Free Muni Rides

Posted by [REDACTED] 8 days ago (Suggestion)
Why not allow all city employees to ride muni free with their city ID’s? This would encourage more employees to take public transportation and park many cars.

9 Voted

Install solar panels on new buildings and existing structures

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

The last agency I worked for saved quite a bit of money by installing solar panels over a new building and parking garage in Hayward. I know that Water Enterprise, Natural Resources & Lands Management Division has a new building in the works in the Sunol valley, a very sunny area. The city could generate quite a bit of energy by installing solar panels on the new building and, if feasible, adding to existing buildings in Sunol and citywide. PG&E pays for excess energy created when tied into their system.

9 Voted

what needs to be done

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)

after reading through all the suggestions it is apparent that the two major issues are the 12b, and to much management.

let me first address 12b. it is a giant money pit costing the city alot of money, and should be examined.

second there are to many layers of management. in my case, as a supervisor, i report to a program manager responsible for only 3 supervisors, a deputy director who micro manages, who reports to a deputy director.

as a supervisor, i know my job, and do it very well. to have reporting to so many about what i do is not only cumbersome, but a waste of time.

with these changes the city could save millions every year. please Mr mayor listen to your in the trenches working staff. if you need a reminder you need to look no further than the mayor of Cincinnati who went undercover in his own city to hear how it really was. undercover boss the week of march 5th

Comments

Written by [REDACTED] 11 days ago
Yes- layers of management really suck money out of the budget. My department has two deputy directors on the same floor. Each making over $155k and neither knowing what their actual job function is. If we consolidated the position we could save the city $155k!! And that is just in one division of one city department. Imagine how many duplicitous redundant director level positions could be cut if there was an audit!! Our supervisor level employees are the ones working and staying in touch with the worker bees. Allow them to do their jobs efficiently and give their staff what they need to improve, evolve and make them want to stay productive….get rid of the extra layers of fat cats
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Written by [REDACTED]

9 days ago
SFFD is incredibly top heavy.
– 0 +

9 Voted

reduce healthcare coverage for laid off employees

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Currently SF allows laid off employees to have healthcare coverage for 5 years after employment. This suggestion would be to reduce the number of years to 2 or 3. SF should spend its money on employing people and/or providing City services.

9 Voted

Review of City Budgeted Non Profit Organizations

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)

The city funds so many non profit organizations ($500 million?) and what services does our citizens receive? I am sure many are very good programs but others need to be reviewed more often and if they do not provide excellent service to more than just a few citizens or just serve themselves, we must stop their funding. The SFPD budget is less than 7% of the entire City’s budget when other cities spend upwards of 50-75% of their budget on police and fire combined. During tough times, we must re-examine our priorities.

Comments

Written by [REDACTED] 9 days ago
What you are really talking about are PSCs. The only way to really make the kinds of changes you are suggesting is to trim the amount of money distributed via PSCs. We have staff and resources that could cover a great deal of what is spent with this mechanism.
– 0 +

Written by [REDACTED] 5 days ago
The public perception – even within city government – is that these non-profits are handed money with no oversight, no required outcomes for their clients, and no audits. Nothing could be further from the truth. At least at the DPH, contracted non-profit agencies provide needed serves to some of the City’s most needy. They are given very clear and consistent oversight by a city contract monitoring process and must meet very specific outcomes and goals in order to keep their contract. Contracting out these services ultimately saves the city money.
– 0 +

Written by [REDACTED] 5 days ago
I agree with [REDACTED] 100%. Contracting out these services saves the city money.
– 0 +

Written by [REDACTED]

3 days ago
How about we save 100% of the money by not providing these services?

2 Voted

Cancel newspaper subscriptions

Posted by [REDACTED] 7 days ago (Suggestion)
All subscriptions to the Recorder and Daily Journal should be cancelled. These are legal newspapers that mostly cover gossip about the big downtown law firms. The coverage of recent court decisions is available for free all over the internet. Lawyers who work for the city are paid enough to buy their own subscriptions if they really need them.

And if any city department buys the Chronicle,

8 Voted

save thousands of dollars by switching to Century Gothic font, which uses 30% less ink than Arial

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

The University of Wisconsin says it’ll save thousands of dollars by switching to Century Gothic font, which uses 30% less ink than Arial.

Click here to change your default font in Outlook, Word, Excel: www.sfapproved.org/Toner-cartridges/

8 Voted

Local Hiring for City Workers

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

Given the overwhelming number of City employees who commute in, it would make sense to: 1) Offer incentives to rent/buy within the CCSF (like similar programs for firefighters and teachers in other cities), or 2) make a concerted effort to hire qualified SF residents (or former SF residents) rather than constantly recruiting from out of state or other cities. Employees who are residents within the CCSF cut down on traffic, pollutants/car emissions, and keep employees from bolting out at 4:49 pm because they’re trying to “beat the traffic”. An added bonus is that the employees are actually familiar (or more familiar) about the City’s history, configuration, services, organizations, etc.

Comments

Written by [REDACTED] 5 days ago
I agree – and offer incentives to those of us who live in the city, like free monthly MUNI passes!
– 0 +

Written by [REDACTED] 4 days ago
But, we also need the best in the City’s workforce, as much as possible!

I suggest employment of good managers and workers from all around the nation.

Let’s find them.

8 Voted

pension and healthcare

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
For future employees pensions should be based on their base pay, not to include overtime. Health care should be left alone until we see Obama’s health plan play out when rates should drop. Last year’s prop B greatly increased dependent health care which would have put the cost of health care solely on the backs of families.

8 Voted

Get Rid of City and County CARS…..

Posted by [REDACTED] 10 days ago (Suggestion)

We would save lots of money if we took away all of the County Cars that are given to city workers. City Workers should not have cars paid for by the city “UNLESS” it’s absolutely critical for the position. Secondly, city workers who have cars should not be allowed to take them home, lots of the city workers car expenses are due to taking cars home and driven else where on weekends. Stop this PRACTICE IMMEDIATELY.

7 Voted

Clean-up the City Workforce of the non-productive employees

Posted by [REDACTED] 5 days ago (Suggestion)

Reduce layers of management, i.e., Directors, Managers, Supervisors, Principals, Seniors, Analysts, ……, and first level working class, performing certain City functions. Compensate the productive working level in their classes and professions, accordingly, but eliminate Glorified Clerks! Employ engineers to perform as engineers, attorneys to perform as attorneys, accountants to perform as accountants, police officers to perform as police officers, sheriffs as sheriffs, etc.

7 Voted

Temporarily make some positions 3/4 or part-time until budget improves

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Rather than cutting positions and punishing workers, the City would have an opportunity for better consensus and buy-in if some positions had the option of three-quarter (30-35 hours) or part-time (20-25 hours)if it meant that they could keep their jobs and have at least *some* time being contributed to their retirement and some benefits. Those employees should be able to go back up to full-time when the budget improves.

Read More | 1 Comment | javascript:vote(0,166,1,’1b690bbb92b0b30ee1b230528a130565′,-10)
Citywide | fte tenured employees work day work All

7 Voted

RECYCLE TONER CARTRIDGES TO BENEFIT SFUSD

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
Office Depot offers a program to recycle toner cartridges, ink cartridges, and small electronics. SF should partner w/ Office Depot by placing collection boxes in all facilities and recycle these items for the SFUSD. This should be a mandatory program for City Facilities. We can also encourage other businesses w/i SF [ie Bank of America, UCSF, State Offices,…]to recycle on behalf of the SFUSD.

Read More | Discuss
Citywide | earn supplies for sfusd w/ office depot All

7 Voted

City Cars

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)

Eliminate City Cars except where required by State or Federal Law.
At 1pm on Friday afternoon there is a rush from S.F. to the other cities from people driving City cars with free gasoline.
If the City does not want to eliminate City cars, car-tracking subscription services could be obtained to find out where City cars are at night and on the weekend and discipline could occur.
Again, many of these cars are issued to the highest paid employees who are therefore double-dipping.

Read More | Discuss
Citywide | free transportation All

7 Voted

Get rid of fax machines

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)

Fax machines are outdated technology. Anything that can be sent via fax can be scanned and sent via email. If we stop using fax machines, we won’t have to pay for the phone lines, paper or ink needed to operate them. Perhaps we can sell our old fax machines while they still have some resale value. The only city agency that still uses fax machines is the SFPD, because they don’t use email. All other agencies seem to have stopped using these dinosaurs. Maybe we can donate all our old fax machines to the SFPD.

7 Voted

Replace MS Office with OpenOffice or LibreOffice

Posted by [REDACTED] 39 days ago (Suggestion)
Replace MS Office applications and their licensing costs with free to use OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice software, where possible. Most City workers have basic word processing, spreadsheets and presentation needs that could be met by using free office software.

7 Voted

City Vehicles Usage

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Reduce or eliminate usage of City vehicles by management and supervisory staff, with the exception of the GM or AGM of a division. Staff should drive their personal vehicles to the work site, and utilize a city vehicle for working in the field. For remote locations such as Hetch Hetchy, managers most often need to report to the office headquarters first in the event of an emergency anyway, so having a city vehicle that is driven between 45 to 75 miles per day/225 to 400 miles per week during the work week does not save on any response time when responding to emergencies. This would improve morale for the ranks to see the much higher paid management cutting back, as well as eliminating huge fueling expenses and vehicle maintenance expenses due to lessened mileages and wear and tear on vehicles.

7 Voted

waste of money

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
Project Homeless Connect is a waste because it is ineffective and attracting the wrong crowd.

In my opinion, it’s waste of time, money and resources to be printing out pay-stub since it’s already on the intranet.

7 Voted

Selling of scrap metals

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)

I am a metal worker at Rec and Park and I was not aware that our dept. is actually paying to have valuable scrap iron, aluminum, copper and brass removed from the workplace. This is like throwing money down the drain. I am sure that between all of our maintenance departments ( DPW, RecPark, SFUSD, The Port and MTA)there has to be tons of scrap metal being thrown away and we are charged to remove it. We could have a central secured area to deposit our scrap and sell it at a per ton price for recycling on a bi-annual basis. Just a thought but I hope that this helps our City.

7 Voted

Initiate Health-In-Lieu Payments

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
Some of us have spouses/domestic partners whose health insurance already covers our needs. The City spends a lot on insurance coverage for those of us in this situation. The City would come out ahead if they paid us to opt-out of the program. I know that the City of San Jose offers this option.

7 Voted

budget suggestion

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

the city should suspend the portion of the 12b ordinance that pertains to purchasing.

why should we have to pay more to an approved city vendor, when we can save money and by the same product from a non approved vendor.

example

we buy a bottle of water from company A who is an approved vendor for $2.00 per bottle

we can by from company B a non approved vendor the same bottle of water for $.50

a savings of $1.50 per bottle

now multiply this on all of our contract to approved city vendors vs. non city, and see how much would be saved

7 Voted

negotiate to stop paying overtime

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)

Everyone says this is impossible, but it is time to negotiate with all unions that the city should no longer pay any employees time and a half or double time for extra work. The city spends huge amounts for this extra time. No staff should be forced to work more than 40 hours per week. I am sure there are enough staff who would be happy to work more hours and get paid regular pay for those hours. We have all heard that there is a lot of abuse of city funds by workers who use the process to gain lots of extra pay. Let’s stop this ripoff of city funds.

7 Voted

Salary cuts across the board

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)
Many of us in the city appreciate our competitive pay and good benefits. In the spirit of giving back in tough times, I propose the following across-the-board wage cuts:
1) Those who make over $200,000 take a 20% pay reduction.
2) Those making over $100,000 (up to $199,999) take a 10% pay reduction.
3) Those making over $50,000 (up to $99,999) take a 5% pay reduction.
These reductions would g

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7 Voted

Purchasing Rules

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

It is very difficult to have 3rd parties sign our standard purchase contracts, esp. the indemnification clause. I think there a quite a few companies that will not sign our default contract, especially if it is a small job, resulting in a very large difficulty procuring smalller services/products. We should be able to sign other companies software license agreements, service agreements, etc. if there are non-controversial without spending a large amount of time at the City attorney’s office.

6 Voted

Merchandise

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
Last year some brave soul suggested CCSF Merchandise. I thought it was a good idea at the time. The City Logo on a cool apparel line would be a good start. High end embroidered ball caps and polo shirts would be good. Sell it on the internet and at City Hall in the Southern Light Court and at the Port.

6 Voted

Hand dryers vs. paper towels

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)

How much money does the City pay for paper towels in our public bathrooms annually? I can only imagine the bill is quite large. Installing blower type hand dryers would eliminate the need for paper towels. I also believe that this would also be the “green” thing to do. If this would be too much to ask at the very least we should be composting this material and not adding it our already full land fills. We could possibly set up a high traffic area’s restroom (Portsmouth Square or Washington Square) with electric hand dryers and do a comparison with a facility which still uses paper towels.

6 Voted

Get rid of 12b. Freeze all Professional Services money.

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
12b is where city spends all the unnecessary dollars. Computer stores for example, just sits and collect money without even lifting a finger.

Professional Services money: Every year around this month, I started hearing from the management to start spending the money. Sometimes, I even think my job depends on how to masterfully spend the money and write nice justifications about it.

That’s A

6 Voted

Paperless San Francisco–charge for forms

Posted by [REDACTED] 5 days ago (Suggestion)

Following in the steps of the IRS and CA State not mailing IRS forms, I suggest that San Francisco go paperless, saving on reproduction and paper costs and in addition, this would help us meet our green goals as a city.

Folks that did not want to download forms for free from the Internet could pay a nominal fee (five cents a page) for forms. I am envisioning forms like those filed for transfer tax, residential parking permits, even library due date receipts.

If concerned about low income families not being able to access computers at home, perhaps they could be qualify for free forms with appropriate low income documentation.

6 Voted

budget savings

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
City departments are overstaffed with middle managers. Many of these positions were put in place last year, after unions agreed to pay cuts and furlough days.City needs to eliminate many of these positions.

6 Voted

Green Patrol- to reduce waste of resources- electric, paper, gas

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Have a Green Patrol to review all city services
to verify offices are run efficiently.
Use efficient lighting ;
have timers on thermostats, eclectic, lighting and most computers.
Have auto power off at end of day.
Reduce use of xeroxing to essential items- use routing slips so staff can read and pass on to co staff

6 Voted

saving electricity

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

Currently employees in my department are working all different schedules. The lights are constantly on from 6 am to around 8 pm, Monday thru Friday. If we reschedule all employees to work the same 4, 10 hour days each week, the savings in electricity would greatly benefit the citywide budget. I understand that police and fire will not be able to participate in this as they are a 24 hour department; but their administration offices could participate in the citywide savings. This might be a slight inconvenience to have the entire city’s administrative offices closed one day a week, but if it is publicized that we are going to now be closed on a specific day each week for cost savings it could work.

6 Voted

Yes we can save

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

6. All public buildings open four days instead of five days, but extended 2 to 3 hours a day, to reduce energy. For example, work four 10-hour day, four days a week.

7. All welfare receipients must register to work or to volunteer some hours daily, except the disable people, all people should lay out their daily routine schedule, to prevent them from collecting welfare, then work under the table, make us, the taxpayers look like “fools”.

8. All unemployed people should be registered in some types of programs such as job training, volunteers, to account for their time, to prevent some of them working odd jobs, collecting cash under the table = double pay from unemployment benefits and cash.

9. One more furlough day for all city and county employees.

10. An additional $10.00 for the entire public workers to pay health benefits, monthly.

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6 Voted

Reduce Number of City Vehicles

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

Require no less than 2 people for check out or assignment of four-person-capacity City vehicles (sedans, SUVs, four seater pickup trucks). Reduce number of city vehicles by half. Issue MUNI / BART Clipper cards to all City employees in place of assignment of city cars. Estimate savings to City Departments and use this to compensate SFMTA and BART for Clipper Cards. Create City Bicycle and moped Pools to replace city cars.

6 Voted

removing redundant or similar services

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
City departments should review its core functions to see if some of those functions align with other departments. If there is some overlap, and consequently some redundancies, city departments should work together to see which department is best suited to provide the function. This concept should also apply to grant funded entities so that the city is saving money by not giving grants to variou

6 Voted

311 Makes MONS Obsolete

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
My suggestion is to eliminate MONS. 311 has made it obsolete in terms of constituents requesting city services. For neighborhood meetings, relevant departments can send staff.

6 Voted

Institute Management Training for All Managers

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

All the managers in this city should undergo a standardized, updated training regimen to teach them the theory and practice of modern management and supervision. The current lack of training (or, in some cases, poor training) for managers leads to mistakes, waste and poor employee morale across a wide array of city departments. Managers in this city should at least be AWARE that there is more than one way to manage people, even if they are not smart enough to choose the right way.

Comments

Written by [REDACTED] 12 days ago
Good point. The management training would also teach managers how to write up poor performers pretty consistently so they don’t have to wait for drastic extremes in order to get rid of dead weight. Typically if there is a dead weight employee a manager will simply ignore them, still give them high scores on the performance evaluations, and simply hire another employee to do the work of the dead weight one…all the result of poor management. Poor managers affect on moral adds to sick time used by staff and low productivity. Maybe adding criteria like reviews from former employees before promoting staff to a manager level could help foresee what type of manager you are hiring.
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Written by [REDACTED] 12 days ago
Definitely. See also my post about requiring Toyota lean/QM training.
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6 Voted

Eliminate 12B Compliant Regulations

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)

The city needs to stop wasteful spending period. In a time of talking and lecturing of being fiscally responsible due to the economy. One of the biggest black holes of spending is really this 12B compliant issue. It affects all city departments that need to purchase materials for them to be able to do their jobs. I would really like to know how many MILLIONS of dollars are spent wastefully to intermediary companies to just put their stamp of approval on purchase and charge anywhere from 10% to 30% on top of the original price.

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6 Voted

reduce homeless services by creating targeted approach

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
the city spends a lot on homeless services but the average person does not see the results when walking around. I don’t know how much it will save, but if there is just a focus on certain at risk populations (e.g. vets, mentally ill, families) rather than every single person on the street, it might save some money and enhance the services.

5 Voted

Emergency Audits of Non-Profits for Redunancies, Waste, Fraud

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)
Because of the City’s financial crisis, I believe it is time for a serious audit of city funded non-profits for redundancies of service, waste and fraud.
http://co.sfgov.org/ReportServer?%2fPublic%2f5100_NP&rs%3aCommand=Render…

5 Voted

Three easy furlough days

Posted by [REDACTED] 7 days ago (Suggestion)

You could shoot a cannon through most city offices the day before Thanksgiving, the day before xmas, and the day before New Year’s and not hit anyone.

Most people who are paid to work those days have little to do and leave early.

Very few members of the public try to interact with city agencies on these days.

The city should close every city office other than police, fire, and medical on these three days – without pay. No one would even notice and you would save a ton of money.

5 Voted

Equipment maintenance per run hours not calendar hours

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

Do required maintenance on equipment based on the number of hours the machinery has been operated instead of the number of calendar days or hours that have passed. Some equipment in Maximo gets serviced because a number of calendar days have passed and not because the equipment really needs service. Some equipment may need to be looked at on a calendar basis, but may only require a quick check of some kind and not a full blown service.

5 Voted

Utilize Real Estate

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)
Utilize city owned property by renting out usable space for market value, allowing small businesses to sell products in city cafeterias/buildings, selling (or improving to sell) unused space.

5 Voted

Unions – saving all bad employees

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

Imagine following progressive disciplinary guidelines up to dismissal only to be told that you cannot proceed to termination because the employee is a long term city worker??? If you are not working up to the standards of the department, errors are serious and all documented, how and why are unions allowed to force departments to keep these people? Why is HR so scared to fire people that have clearly demonstrated that they do not care about their jobs? We need a more streamline process to be able to separate those that are factually not working out. If a department has solid, factual proof, there should be no reason not to be able to fire someone. Imagine, even if you do fire, they can appeal it and someone can re-instate them to continue their errors and problems. People wonder why city employees have such bad raps.

Comments

Written by [REDACTED] 5 days ago
this sounds more like a frustration rather than a way to save money – I happen to agree with you – but I’ve worked in profit-base, non-profit-based, and for the city and this is a problem across the board, not just for the city. At least with our system there are safeguards against bias-based treatment and firing – something we see all too often in profit-based businesses.
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5 Voted

Lights Off!

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)
Many areas blaze lights, waste electricity 24/7. Install motion sensors if you must, but DO NOT keep the lights on when “nobody is home”.

5 Voted

Saving on Janitorial Services and Electricity To Boot

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)

Janitorial services currently go to every desk to empty individual waste baskets. While performing this service (after hours) the entire floor is usually lit. Many companies now require employees to empty their individual waste baskets into a central point on each floor (usually near the elevator). This significantly reduces the labor required to collect the waste (and recyclables) and allows the floors’ lighting to be off except where the main waste receptacles are located.

5 Voted

Internships

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)
Why not create more internship programs in all city departments? We could effectively have more help without an increase in our budgets. All interns would learn invaluable work skills and be easier to hire in the private sector and within by already being trained in all areas.

5 Voted

Vacation Buy Outs

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)
Why not allow employees to sell the city their vacation hours at half price every year? The city would save half and the employees may get much needed cash. If you dont want to sell your hours dont, but if you need to, you will be saving the city money.

5 Voted

A couple of ways to save a lot of money for all dept’s

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)

The 12B compliant bidding process the supervisors voted in many years ago has not only crippled the fare bidding process by limiting who can now place bids with the CCSF, But also adding about 20 to 25% to the cost of business.

There should a very strike limit on cars that are allowed to go home and leave the city limits and the mileage be tracked and checked I have seen a lot of city vehicles being used off hours for personal use.

For the next set of personal cuts. Look at cutting some off the top instead of away cutting at the bottom which is the main back bone of the city

5 Voted

reduce/eliminate all streetscape projects

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Although nice to have well kept medians and well kept sidewalks, these projects are not necessary in hard budget times. A better model might be to have individual neighborhoods take care of their own sidewalks and medians where possible.

5 Voted

Staff Reductions/Position Reform at Attorney Departments

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

Although there is always a need for City Attorneys, District Attorneys and Public Defenders, these departments have many attorneys that are paid comparable to or maybe better than many private sector attorneys. I would propose making reductions in the number of attorneys and reducing the level of steps for the attorney classification (there are currently 16 steps). Additionally, I would remove any automatic step increases that exist for the class and make step increases based on performance and recognition of the budget situation citywide and not department-wide.

4 Voted

City Contribution to Pension

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)

There is a lot of rhetoric about the pension fund, and forcing employees to pay more into the fund. When times were good in the 1980’s the City did not pay a dime into the pension fund for several years (I think it was 6 years) while all City employees continued to contribute. I’d like to see the City make up the difference. No money? City needs to find some to live up to its obligations. If the City had contributed would the current shortage be as bad?

4 Voted

Charge rent forpress offices

Posted by [REDACTED] 7 days ago (Suggestion)
The press office in City Hall, the Hall of Justice, and any other city property that has one (Candlestick Park? Bill Graham Auditorium?) should be rented to the press.

The media should not get free use of these spaces and free electricity, heat, and water.

4 Voted

Two very easy furlough days

Posted by [REDACTED] 7 days ago (Suggestion)

Lincoln’s Birthday (in February) and Cesar Chavez Day (March 31) are state holidays but are not city holidays. Since the courts are closed on these days, all employees in the City Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, and D.A.’s Office should take these as days off without pay.

This will not cause the usual staffing issues of furlough days as no coverage will be needed. With the exception of people in the City Attorney’s Office who need to appear in federal court, everyone else could take the day off and the other two offices could be closed.

This would save a lot of money. Perhaps it could be expanded to other city offices as well.

4 Voted

Have vacation/floating day/sick day information accessible to employees online

Posted by [REDACTED] 39 days ago (Suggestion)
It’s a pain to e-mail HR to know our unused vacation balance. It would be great if we can access it online.

4 Voted

Abolish Citizens Advisory Committees

Posted by [REDACTED] 5 days ago (Suggestion)

The various Citizens Advisory Committees should all be abolished. This is an incredible waste of time and money for the City. All of the departments represented by advisory committees already have official Commissions. The Commission meetings are the appropriate forums for citizens to air their concerns or complaints. Having two oversight bodies for any City department is simply wasteful and ineffectual. Not only is it a waste of City resources to provide space and technology for these meetings, the amount of time and personnel resources used by the departments responding to requests for information by these oversight bodies is a gross mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.

4 Voted

Increase employee pension contributions

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

The City’s contribution to the San Francisco Employees Retirement System is expected to increase from 14% of salaries this year ($360 million) to 29% ($750 million) in 3 years. This is due to poor investment performance, benefit enhancements implemented in recent years, and retirees living longer. While the City’s contribution is rising, employee contributions are set at 7.5% of salaries. Employees should share in the increased cost of maintaining the retirement fund by contributing a slightly greater percentage of their salaries. These increased costs are eroding the City’s ability to provide important city services.

4 Voted

City-sponsored Tourism Store

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

SF is a leading tourism destination. Open a tourism-related store downtown or in Fisherman’s Wharf that sells t-shirts, sweatshirts –and other clothes that tourists need when they realize San Francisco has a “beach”, but not that kind of beach– dvds/documentaries, postcards, tchotchkes, etc., and hire local San Franciscans to run it and work in it. It should be a shining example of what a tourism-product store looks like, i.e, not junked up with illegal designer purses.

4 Voted

reduce staff levels

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Instead of temporary reductions including furloughs and part-time schedules, I would suggest permanently reducing the size of city government. Many departments grew substantially in the last decade.

4 Voted

FREE VOLUNTEERS

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)
Hundreds if not thousands of retired, experienced City workers who want to contribute and make a difference could be used to perform City duties. The City would not have to bear the brunt of retirement, medical, etc. Most retired people are healthy, intelligent, and focused.
Would require a volunteer center and agency.

4 Voted

General City Responsibility

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Interesting that General City Resposibility was not a listed department, but the current budget for that department is $545M. I think the appropriations for this department should be scrutinized. Many of the reserves sit here (which are needed), but other appropriations might be reduced, at least for one year until City deficits are minimized. At the end of last fiscal year, this “department” had a total of $21M in unpsent appropriations (this was probably included in the year-end GF savings). Last year, this department had appropriations of $66.7M subobject 06B00 “programmatic projects”, with no expenditures in that suboject. In the current fiscal year, that same subobject again has an appropriation of $66.7M. As of March, this department shows a net unspent balance of $304M, yet the Controller’s 6 Month status report shows this department will have a year-end deficit of $2.3M. Unnecessary appropriations to this department should be limited while the City faces deficit budgets.

4 Voted

Pursue Unclaimed Property from the State

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

The City should aggressively pursue retrieving unclaimed property currently held by the State. A search of the State Controller’s Unclaimed Property Database shows several “hits” for funds owed to CCSF, including various City Departments. Additional hits can be found by doing a general search using “San Francisco.”

Every little bit helps…

http://scoweb.sco.ca.gov/UCP/

4 Voted

Use taxis instead of city vehicles

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
City vehicles go unused much of the time, and we have to pay for gas and maintenance. Taxi drivers are city subcontractors. Why not give city employees vouchers to use taxis and we can get rid of many city vehicles. Shops that use trucks to haul equipment and other things would still need to keep their vehicles of course.

4 Voted

together we can

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

11. No more free parking or low fee parking for any city and county employees, same with SFUSD teachers/staffs. Everyone should be charged a regular parking fee.

12. Register all undocumented immigrants, charge for a $100.00 fee for each for SF residence ID.

13. Charge education fees for undocumented children/youth/adults, $50.00 minimum a month, up to 500.00 month for public school. It should NOT be a burden for legal and documented immigrants to pay for “illegal or undocumented” immigrants. After all, many of these families do make a income or has income to support their needs.

14. All non profit organizations should pay an annual fee for $10.00, up to $200.00, depends on their income filing budget.

15. No more raising taxes of any kinds! It not how much we raise, it is how much we waste!

4 Voted

SAVE TREES = SAVE $

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

Setting printing defaults to double-side print is the easiest way to save money (through less paper use and less waste) and help decrease our environmental impact.

Additionally, the city should convert more documents and forms to be filled-out and saved electronically. This will free up office space, save money on paper and postage, and securely store documents.

This is an easy, long-term, immediate reduction of costs both financial and environmental for the city! It may not be a huge impact on costs, but everything counts…

4 Voted

Why Rent when we should own?

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)

Why must the city continue to rent properties from private owners rather than purchase? We pay quite a bit of money towards others ownership of property and have nothing to show for it or to leave for future city employees to use or sell. Real Estate has made people rich. The city failed to purchase and invest in SF real estate and now pay to make others rich. I am not sure how much it will save if anything but at least we would have something to show for it. If we own it, we can do what we want with it. By renting, we are at the mercy of the landlord.

4 Voted

12B Compliance

Posted by [REDACTED] 10 days ago (Suggestion)
Get red of 12b compliance…The City will be in the black

4 Voted

Save Money on Toner Cartridges by Changing Printer Defaults

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

The City spends a fortune on computer print cartridges and color cartridges are particularly expensive. All computers and computer program applications should be set to default to black & white, draft quality prints. Then people can just change to color on the rare exceptions when needed. Draft quality printouts look just as good a higher resolution prints, and for most cases, it doesnt matter anyway.

4 Voted

across the board 5% pay cut

Posted by [REDACTED] 10 days ago (Suggestion)

propose and enact an across the board temporary 5% pay cut to all city staff for a specific amount of time as a mechanism to balance the budget and not cut services or jobs … given the many city contracts and unions I am guessing this is a formidable task … perhaps there is a voter driven mechanism to accomplish this … I would be willing to make this sacrifice if everyone else did as long as it meant fewer layoffs and, more importantly, fewer reductions in services

4 Voted

HRC compliance for vendors

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
Temporarily suspend vendor requirements for HRC compliance. A three to five year period should be long enough to see if there is any savings, and if so, how much.

4 Voted

Review California State DPA Merit Awards

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
The California State DPA Merit Award Program rewards employees who submit ideas that reduce or eliminate State expenditures or improve safety or the operation of State government. The State’s Employee Suggestion Program has been around since 1950.

Review the California State DPA Merit Award ideas for the last few years; some may be directly applicable to San Francisco.

A specific idea is

4 Voted

change outside purchasing contract policies to save money

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)

The city restricts every department from contracting with outside agencies unless they follow all kinds of rules. We all see that the city buys new equipment at exorbitant prices, when an individual can buy the same equipment for their home at half the price. An example is computers. DPH pays about $1000 for each computer because we have to buy them through the HP contract. We could buy the exact same computer from Dell at $500.

3 Voted

Reasonable Cap on Pensions

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)
How about putting a reasonable cap on pensions? This is unpopular, but maybe allowing allowing the pension to be calculated from the base salary? It doesn’t really make sense how someone retired could make more than their base pay before retiring. Don’t count the banked vacation, overtime, etc. Workers would be able to abuse it during their last year of service before retiring.

3 Voted

Energy Savings

Posted by [REDACTED] 2 days ago (Suggestion)
I think we need to lower all our thermostats to 68 degrees. I would rather wear a sweater than be laid off.

3 Voted

Expand Temporary Transitional Work Assignments (TTWA)

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
At DPH we save a couple of million dollars a year through the Temporary Transitional Work Assignment Program (TTWA ).
Injured workers that are not incapacitated, rather than staying home, are place in modified positions within DPH. This allows injured workers to work without exacerbating their existing injuries and augments our very lean operation with skilled workers.
Assignments last 90 days and can be extended to 180 days if the injured worker is making measurable improvement.
Injured workers are paid out of their existing recs rather than through Workers’ Comp. Since the City is permissibly uninsured this means that the City is not paying additional WC funds and is still getting work for the salaries already paid.
This kind of program could be applied City Wide with the result being a considerable savings across all Departments.

3 Voted

Require all City Vendors (including CBOs) to Use ACH for City Payments

Posted by [REDACTED] 5 days ago (Suggestion)

City departments practically have to BEG vendors, particularly CBOs, to register to receive payments via ACH. ACH allows vendors to receive City payment instantly, provides an electronic audit trail of the payment, and reduces City staff time spent printing and picking up paper checks. Registering for ACH payments should be a standard requirement for all vendors seeking to do business with the City.

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3 Voted

Save $378,942+/yr: get system to make it easier for the City to buy allowed products, not costlier prohibited products

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

The City could save $378,942+/yr if purchasing systems (ADPICS/FAMIS, RAS, Maximo) steers staff to buy allowed items that usually cost less because they’re in City contracts.

The current system allows staff to buy prohibited, costlier products. City staff bought $378,942 of prohibited janitorial cleaners & papers in ’09, probably because they did not know how to do the right thing. See report: tinyurl.com/who-bought-green.

A new web-based system used by some gov’ts is better than updating the current system which:
1) Is very hard to navigate. You cannot use a mouse. You have to memorize 4-digit codes to get to different screens.
2) Cannot track who bought prohibited items.

Since it’s hard to tell 28k City staff of all purchasing policies, it’s more efficient to change procedures. People need instant feedback to change. People drive slower when they see a sign showing their speed.

3 Voted

Revive L21’s Union and City Partnership Program

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)

Some years ago when the City was in another lean budget year, L21 embarked upon a City-wide program to work with the Management in various City departments to come up with ways the department could save money. In the Purchasing Department, Union members met on a regular basis with management staff to brainstorm ideas. The ideas were researched to see if they were feasible and an estimate of the time and money that could be saved was made. This resulted in several procedural changes in the Purchasing Department that are still in effect today. I suggest that the program be revived Citywide, so that cost saving becomes part of the day-to-day culture of the City rather than a once a year exercise.

3 Voted

Create SF Philanthropy Center to Accept Philanthropic Donations

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)

Take a look at San Diego’s Philanthropy Center http://www.sandiego.gov/philanthropycenter/- This provides an extremely easy process for City Departments to list their needs and likewise provides an easy process for Philanthropic organizations to make donations:
The US Internal Revenue Code specifically identifies municipal governments as qualified charitable beneficiaries. Please see US Internal Revenue Code Section 170(c) and its subsections (1), (2) and (3). The California Code Of Regulations, Section 18944.2 provides conformity with the US Internal Revenue Code.

3 Voted

Prop F Employees – Double Dippers

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)

When times are flush, I understand the convenience of having a retired former employee return to work part-time to assist with heavy workloads. However, times are not flush and extraneous Prop F employees should be let go. I have seen employees return in two departments. In the best cases, the Prop F employee performs useful work, but in the worst cases, the Prop F employee kills time doing “make work” projects. Let’s support full time employees first and keep them employed. Pull the plug on retirees who want to be on the “gravy train”.

3 Voted

Reduce PSCs and Use Interdepartmental Work Orders

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

It is estimated that $1.4 is spent annually on PSCs. Many of these jobs could be done by City Workers already on the payroll in their Departments. Departments without skilled staff could obtain qualified individuals via interdepartmental work orders. Consultants typically charge huge markups for their services as well as per diems. Using our own people (especially in project management and routine maintenance of infrastructure…could save the City a tidy sum.

3 Voted

City Air Travel

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)

I don’t understand why we purchase our flights from vendors that charge us more than it would cost for us to purchase ourselves. We still need to deal with accounting, but why add an additional third party to the process? Ex. The City is charged ~$100 dollars for a Southwest flight that cost ~$70 dollars if I had booked it myself. I’m going to need to submit my travel reimbursement form for my expenses anyway, so why don’t I purchase the flight myself and reimburse that as well? The third party vendor would need to do the same thing and deal with accounting. Now you have two people accounting needs to deal with instead of one. More work for accounting and more work for me. Those are additional billable hours to the City and we receceived no additional benefits from the third party vendor.

3 Voted

Analyze each City Department for WASTE….

Posted by [REDACTED] 10 days ago (Suggestion)

I work for a City Department that has a lot of waste in all areas of the department.

Firstly, stop moving people every couple of months to different offices. This is very expensive and it disrupts every ones work space to accommodate the moves.

Secondly, get rid of people who are not effective in their jobs. We hold on to too many slackers. Make the process easier to fire people who are not doing their jobs and haven’t been for many years.

Thirdly, Work space and environments need to be cleaner, health issues waste a lot of time. People get sick if the work space isn’t kept clean and free of debris. etc. etc. etc.

3 Voted

First Class Mail

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Weed out first class mailing lists by offering email notifications and deleting bad names and offering email as an alternative. Will save money on a lot of postage.

3 Voted

Bike Wholesale Program

Posted by [REDACTED] 8 days ago (Suggestion)
Have the city buy bicycles in bulk at discount and sell them to City employees to ride to work at same discount.

Less traffic.

3 Voted

Administrative Consolidation

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Combine the back office operations for the SFPD and Sheriff. Recruitment and training (POST Academy is a POST Academy), personnel adminstration, etc are all duplicated efforts between the two departments.

3 Voted

Negotiate better terms in Union contracts

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
Longevity pay should be eliminated as the City already rewards employee longevity through seniority, vacation policies, retirement, etc.

The City should research market rates by classification, rather than agreeing to one COLA for all employees represented by a union.

The pay provided for generic premiums (standby, acting assignment, etc.) should be decreased.

3 Voted

Capacity Building & Technical Assistance

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)

Some City agencies pay for nonprofit organizations’ capacity building and technical assistance. While this is a supportive response to the City’s grantees, it can also be very expensive. The City should create a repository of pro bono capacity building/technical assistance services — liken to the Taproot Foundation. One possible way to secure pro bono services is for the Mayor’s office to approach the private sector (current and future businesses) about donating an allotment of pro bono hours to the city’s nonprofit organizations. Example: A new marketing firm will be opening in SOMA. The Mayor’s office and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development partner to prepare a formal welcome to San Francisco + give a solid “ask” to dedicate a set amount of pro bono hours to a SOMA nonprofit organization that helps kids.

3 Voted

Pentagon style purchasing

Posted by [REDACTED] 2 days ago (Suggestion)
When requiring “supplies” getting two estimates and using catalogs is NEVER the cheapest way to go. Why aren’t we buying in bulk and saving the City money. Hey…I need one inch binders….the catalog wants $14.92. Not bad, huh? That’s each,per…when the $14.92 would be a good price for all 8. Why must we pay exorbitant prices for items that could be purchased much cheaper. Wa$te, Wa$te, Wa$te.

3 Voted

Yes, together, we can save the city

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

16. Sell all city and county cars for employees, pay employees to drive own car, to reimburse at a higher rate, maybe 65 to 75 cents instead of 50 cents a mile, this way to reduce the cost of insurances/maintenance, not worth for the city, except the police, emergency vehicles.

17. Cut down to street cleaning from daily to every other daily, instead of weekly, then make it bi-weekly, or once a month for some cleaner streets.

18. Involve more high school students for community services, to give them school credits for doing street cleaning, volunteer in community agencies. It is a win-win situation for the students and for the city.

19. All youth on probation must pay a fine of $50.00 for administration fee/uniform fee, assign those who arrested graffiti to clean the entire city for graffiti removal, a good consequence for them to learn a lesson. The city spends too much money on graffiti removal!

3 Voted

yearly fee for SF Public Employees that don’t reside in SF

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
What about charging a yearly fee for CCSF employees that don’t reside in SF… could be a % or a flat fee that would be fairly nominal, but when multiplied by all those CCSF employees that don’t live here – would be substantial.

3 Voted

Centralized List of All CCSF Employee Email Addresses

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)

Department personnel officers (or other appropriate designees) should be required to maintain a up-to-date and accurate email address list for each employee under their jurisdiction in a similarly formatted Excel spreadsheet and distribute to authorized personnel in the departments that serve employees, such as DHR, HSS and Payroll. Updates should be distributed quarterly. Being able to communicate with employees via email, instead of paper mailings, would save these departments many thousands of dollars.

2 Voted

More HealthCare Choices

Posted by [REDACTED] 8 days ago (Suggestion)
Allow more vendors to provide Medical coverage to City employees instead of just 3. More competitors means more savings.

2 Voted

FMLA – Investigative Unit

Posted by [REDACTED] 8 days ago (Suggestion)
FMLA is a program that needs to seriously be looked at. Too many employees get this simply to be able to call in and not report to work. Getting FMLA is as easy as asking your doctor to fill out a form. Nothing is verified, nothing is investgated. All approved. This costs the city millions of dollars in overtime due to absent workers. There are some employees that really need this protected time,

2 Voted

FAIR SHARE FROM THE MANAGEMENT

Posted by [REDACTED] 2 days ago (Suggestion)
Most of the city employees’ salaries have been cut since last year but the city’s management levels can still keep their same earnings. To be fair across the board and to save a lot of money to the city, the management levels should be cut their salaries too.

2 Voted

Keeping SF money in SF

Posted by [REDACTED] 2 days ago (Suggestion)
We should assess a fee on employees that work for CCSF, but do not live here. Too many employees earn money in SF and go home and spend it there – improving other local economies. I was one of these people for years, and a $50-$100 fee a month would have caused me to move into SF much sooner.

2 Voted

Eliminate Political Positions

Posted by [REDACTED] 2 days ago (Suggestion)
I saw another suggestion about the Fire Chief. What does this position have to do with putting out fires? I have been to several private functions where the Fire Chief always shows up. Probably to have something to do. Nice but certainly not necessary.
There are probably many other positions in the City that are political from the past but simply should be eliminated.

2 Voted

Save on administrative costs, reduce or merge duplicate positions

Posted by [REDACTED] 2 days ago (Suggestion)

The City has a Human Resources Dept. (HRD) and some departments also have fully staffed Human Resources Div/Unit. When I started with my original department, we had a Personnel Office manned by one Personnel Clerk who collects timecards from each unit for the payroll period. All other personnel matters were handled by the supervisors, i.e., Performance Evaluation and daily time sheets, etc. Now, the department has a Personnel Manager, Personnel Analysts and Payroll Clerks because the department also does recruitment, testing and interviews, as HRD. Are these duplicate positions in the City? How about the Budget Director/Officer and their staff in departments, Controller’s Budget Director, Mayor’s Budget Analysts and the Board of Supervisors’ Budget Analysts? Don’t they work with one budget or the same budget?

2 Voted

Bicycle plan

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)

With all the improvements the City has done on behalf of the bicycle coalition, I’m sure it is in the millions of $$$, they do not collect a penny from them. When I was a kid back in the early ’60s my parents had to purchase bicycle licenses for each of our bikes.
Create a license fee for all bicycles in SF and charge them for the parking spaces that have been taken away from the motor vehicles that pay a ton of fees to use the road and parking in SF.

Comments

Written by [REDACTED] 12 days ago
Interesting, and definitely an effective program in the City’s past. An outreach campaign to make this program sound enticing to cyclist might highlight that a license plate system could help curb the City’s huge bicycle theft problem.

That said, parking spaces are designations applied to public right of way, and they never belonged to the motorized vehicle to begin with.
– 0 +

Written by [REDACTED] 12 days ago
I agree – why not charge a license fee like when I was a kid…..

2 Voted

Consolidated Purchases (Software in this case)

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)

Currently, it appears each department purchases their own software. If the City were to get network licenses and consolidate purchases of software, there would be an extraordinary amount of money saved. It doesn’t make sense how each department needs to make its own separate purchase of Microsoft (Windows, Excel, Word, etc), accounting software, engineering software, the list goes on. The purchase of software should be centralized so that the City can purchase as one entity and receive bulk discounts. One person can maintain the list of software that the city needs and will coordinate with all the IT sections of the various departments.

A little more coordinate work for IT staff? Yes. But a lot of money saved? Yes!

I know of software in particular, but this concept can be applied for any other purchases. Supplies and equipment…

2 Voted

give advocacy depts the resources to advocate

Posted by [REDACTED] 2 days ago (Suggestion)

SF has several small advocacy departments e.g. HRC, status of Women, Immigrant Right. None of these departments have the resources they need. Consolidate them into one department that advocates for all San Franciscans and give them the resources they need. This consolidated effort will allow more “bang for the City’s Buck” – rather than several small and under-funded dept.s that are able to accomplish very little.

Comments

Written by [REDACTED] 1 day 4 hours ago
Eliminating these departments would save even more money.

We need to get back to basics and realize that we cannot do it all.
– 0 +

2 Voted

Lower Healthcare Costs through Incentive Plans

Posted by [REDACTED] 5 days ago (Suggestion)

Healthcare incentive plans have been introduced by the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union to its
own employees in Illinois, King County, Wash and are being considered by Oregon’s Public Employees’ Benefit Board.

These plans create two benefits levels, one more generous than the other and require every employee participating in the health
plan to undergo an assessment to determine their potential vulnerability to chronic diseases like diabetes or heart disease. Same goes for a spouse who is on their plan.

Health officials — most likely nurse practitioners or some other form of adviser — then would craft a wellness plan for each person based on their personal assessment. The person would be expected to follow the plan, which would improve their wellness and reduce the amount of health care they require.

2 Voted

Improve city infrastructures and city pays nothing

Posted by [REDACTED] 10 days ago (Suggestion)
City has a lot of road ways, bridges, stairs, and retaining walls need to be repaired or replaced. Also the city has a lot of sidewalk curb ramps need working to accommodate ADA requirement. If city allows private companies that pay the job to put their names or company’s logo on where the jobs are done, the city will improve its infrastructures and pays nothing.

2 Voted

Negotiate City-wide Solution to MTA Parking Changes

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
MTA’s recent parking changes are negatively impacting most City Depts. The City Administrator should negotiate a solution with Muni and transfer a reasonable amount of funds, rather than requiring each Dept to purchase $800 placards to park City cars, conduct meet & confer with unions, & set up administrative procedures to monitor the purchase & use of placards.

2 Voted

Establish Reasonable Cap on Employee Use of Catastrophic Illness Program

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
The City provides many generous benefits, including health care, sick leave, disability retirement, long-term disability for most unions, etc. As these resources are already available, time limits should be set for participation in the City’s Catastrophic Illness Program.

2 Voted

Cut the Red Tape for Volunteer Organizations

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)

The Department that I work for has been contacted MANY times by volunteer organizations wishing to donate their time and labor to clean up the land on our facility properties and other labor-intensive jobs. They have to jump through hoops,drafting, revising and re-drafting agreements just to volunteer. Create a blanket agreement and simple process for volunteer organizations to help City Departments.

2 Voted

It’s a gas.

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)
Except for San Francisco General Hospital where extremely hot water may be necessary, all other water heating systems in the City could be turned down a notch, save energy, and still provide hot enough water for most purposes.

2 Voted

Budgets for all Departments

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)

We all work for the same boss, the citizens of our great city. Why must city departments such as DPW, DT or others be reliant on work orders from other agencies to create their own budget? All this does is increase the costs of getting something done. Why should a project for by DPW cost so much more than it would cost to bring in a private contractor? We have to not only pay for the carpenter, we have to pay for the supervisor and the manager etc. I am not picking on DPW, they should have their own budget. If another city department needs work done, then it should be approved if needed, scheduled and completed during a city workers shift. By forcing other departments to include the costs of work orders in their budgets only increases the costs of a project. This is a vicious cycle that must be ended and save money.

1 Vote

Possible one-time resources for the General Fund

Posted by [REDACTED] 5 days ago (Suggestion)
1. “Left-over” of prior years’ General Fund subsidies. Unused
appropriations for years hidden in the subsidized funds, be
returned to the General Fund?

2. Combined projects, General Fund and others, budgeted in two
funds but totally spent in the General Fund; and, not
reimbursed from the other fund? Collect for the General Fund!

1 Vote

Lease instead of purchase Computer equipment

Posted by [REDACTED] 2 days ago (Suggestion)
Every year we are THROWING AWAY millions of $ in out-dated computer equipment that could be removed and replaced for a monthly fee.

Read More | Discuss | javascript:vote(0,521,2,’64218163a93cb09d248c51b9c37c4f37′,-10)
Citywide | lease computer equipment All

1 Vote

Computerized time sheets

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)

We should be able to log on and off for are start and stop times plus breaks. Send it to our supervisor for approval at end of the week, then supervisor sends it to work force manager who sends it to payroll. Employee can be followed by log in/out times and breaks.

We now write it all down on a paper. Hand paper to supervisors. They look it over and sign it. Then turn it into workforce manager who has to physically walk it over to payroll. It just takes a lot more of employee’s, supervisors and workforce managers time that they are getting paid by the hour to do. We are on our computers all day and it would just take a second to process our time sheets by computer.

1 Vote

Turn abandoned/old warehouses on Embarcadero to public parking garages or restaurant/plazas.

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)
There are numerous abandoned/empty warehouses just rotting away on the Embarcadero. Why not turn those into parking garages for the public (since parking in San Francisco is already difficult) and charge per hour or per day? Or have the city re-vamp the warehouses and turn them into restaurants/mini shopping plazas therefore bringing more revenue for the city since The Embarcadero has a lot of foot traffic and tourists?

1 Vote

SIDEWALK CAFES

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)
SIDEWALK CAFES RAMPANT IN NORTHBEACH. BICYCLE LAW NOT ENFORCED. BETWEEN THE CAFES AND THE BICYCLES VERY DIFFICULT AND DANGEROUS FOR OLDER PEOPLE TO WALK DOWN SIDEWALK.
TAXES, FEES, WHATEVER CAFES PAY FOR THIS LUXURY SHOULD BE AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE. TO OFFSET THE LAWSUITS THAT SURELY WILL OCCUR FROM FALLS.

1 Vote

Privatize the SFPUC’s Water and Waste Water Departments

Post Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

The City should investigate the potential savings should the operations and maintenance sections of the water department and the waste water departments were operated by private entities similar as to what has been done for numerous other municipalities throughout the country. City workers would be retained although work rules and unionization issues would be negotiated. Essential City managers would oversee the private entity’s overall operations while a citizen’s watchdog committee could oversee both the transfer of authority and the City management. Ownership of the pipelines, treatment facilities and maintenance areas would be retained as City property.

1 Vote

HealthDental Contribution and Retirement Contribution

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
4-7% (relative to income) employee contribution to health, effective ASAP and to include current employees.

Increase employee retirement contribution to 10% ASAP and to include current employees

1 Vote

Require “Toyota LeanThinking” Training for all City Employees

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Getting ad-hoc suggestions about ideas for waste reduction is great, but if the city expects that this will be a recurrent issue, why not train all employees to identify and reduce waste using an established methodology (such as Toyota Lean or TQ Management) as part of orientation? That way, we could think about this in an ongoing and systemic way before there is a budget crunch.

1 Vote

Document Controls and Archiving

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)

At PUC, we’ve recently had consultants coming in to help us archive our files and digitize them into a storage system that can be pulled up from servers. These consultants do not particularly perform the work any faster than our admin staff. Yet they are hired to do this work even though our own city admin staff are not particularly busy. How about putting our city staff to work before hiring the consultants? Consultants have come in to archive our file before, but the quality of the scan was not good. Now they are coming in again to re-archive? Repeat of work? Yes! Could the city staff do a better job than the consultants? Yes! Savings to the city? Yes! Can this apply city wide? Yes!

Suggestions for SFMTA

1 Voted

12B Compliance Drives up Muni repair costs

Posted by [REDACTED] 6 days ago (Suggestion)

Relaxing the rules for 12B compliance would make bidding for city vendor contracts much more competitive. It seems that a number of suppliers are nothing more than brokers who tack on an exorbitant mark-up & then drop-ship goods to the purchasing dept. One part that we use at Muni diesel division is a simple battery tray. Our cost: over $3000.

1 Voted

Furlough days do not save the city money

Posted by [REDACTED] 7 days ago (Suggestion)
Rescinding furlough days for those unions that were forced to take them.
At MTA the same unions that have undergone lay-offs are also forced to take 1 paid day off per month. These openings in the work schedule are now covered with over-time at time & a half the pay rate. As these are safety sensitive positions they cannot go unfilled.

2 Voted

Transportation Authority vs Municipal Transportation Agency

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)
The MTA was re-organized many years ago to be a multi-functional transporation agency with responsibility for transit operations, oversight of parking and traffic, taxi operations, promoting bike programs, and transportation planning. While the amalgamation of these functions into one department has not been completely successful, (the MTA still does not function as one cohesive agency) does the

2 Voted

MTA Contract Compliance Redundancy

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)
The MTA has a separate Contract Compliance unit that duplicates many of the same functions that are performed by HRC staff. Why does the MTA need to have it’s own Contract Compliance Officers? Oversight of contracts and the 14B Ordinance should be centralized with the HRC.

3 Voted

MUNI Uniforms

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)
The MTA is currently negotiating a contract with MUNI Operators. The Agency could save money by re-writing the specifications for the uniforms by: 1)Changing the color of the uniforms to a standard color that manufacturers carry so there is no additional cost to dye the fabric for MUNI. 2) Reduce the number of items on the contract. Do drivers need blazers, winter and summer weight trousers, culo

3 Voted

cable cars separate from MTA

Posted by [REDACTED] 4 days ago (Suggestion)
Why is the MTA expected to run the cable cars? they should be considered a separate, historical site and run more like a moving museum than an arm of MUNI. Residents should be able to still use Clipper cards/ Fast Passes on the cable cars, but they should be run and funded by an entity outside of Muni, so Muni can funnel that money back into the buses and trains.

6 Voted

[ENTIRE POST REDACTED]

2 Voted

ABOLISH MTA

Posted by [REDACTED] 9 days ago (Suggestion)
Abolish MTA.

MTA has grown into an expensive hierarchy of ineffective leaders, seemingly inept, or unqualified for their high-paid positions.

Return MUNI to the PUC and return DPT to the Police Department. Do whatever with the taxi commission.

The original intent of splitting MUNI from the PUC was for clarity in purpose, budgeting, and operations. Today, a ride on MUNI is like gett

11 Voted

idea to help save the city money

Posted by [REDACTED] 10 days ago (Suggestion)
i don’t know but here’s a novel idea-how about pay cuts for upper management who make over $100,000 annually-i’ve worked for the city for twenty years and have survived on substantially less

5 Voted

waste motor oil

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
MTA currently has a contract for the removal of waste motor oil which they are paying $30,000.00/yr. I am currently writing a contract where the MTA will not only not pay to have the oil removed, they will receive $30,000.00 in revenue each year.
the whole City should be doing the same.

4 Voted

Make the City more attractive!

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
Sir/Madam,

A quality improvement to increase the beauty of San Francisco by introducing a green roof treatment to Muni bus shelters around the City. Bus waiting will be tolerable; reduces the impact of water during rain season on our Storm/Sewage system. The idea was successfully implemented in City of Manchester, England.

Thank you,
[REDACTED]

3 Voted

mta parting

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
Mta is now charging employees for on site parking at $80.00 per month. This is an additional burden on the employee but also often means the employee will have to leave their job to feed parking meters or move their cars during the day, this results in untold lost of City time while they are taking care of this business.

3 Voted

fleet appearance – MUNI

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
MTA is currently in the middle of a program to paint and repair their fleet of coaches. This requires replacing all the decals on the coach at a cost of over $3,000.00 per coach. Why doesn’t MTA purchase the printing equipment and print these decals themselves in the mta sign shop or City printing department? Over 800 coaches at $3,000.00/ea would purchase a lot of equipment and provide a better

3 Voted

City pays to park it’s own cars on City streets

Posted by [REDACTED] 11 days ago (Suggestion)
I should, but cannot believe that a city agency pays another city agency to park city cars on city streets, this is just robbing Peter to pay Paul, there is no sense to this at all and when you factor in the adm costs of running an agency’s program to pay for parking, the cost to the city is just compounded.

There is no logic to other city depts bailing out MTA with city money.

15 Voted

Put a coffee vendor in every muni station (collect 50% of profits)

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Put a coffee vendor in every muni station, similar to the Peet’s in the Montgomery and Embarcadero stations. Charge rent, and collect a portion of the income. Use it to fund muni services.

2 Voted

Solving the working nanny issue

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Much has been written on the issues with nannies coming into the city and having to move their cars every 2 hours to avoid getting a ticket. Why not issue a monthly pass at the same rate that the city charges taxes for imputed parking that is currently on the books…. $250 a month for downtown ands and $80 a month for other areas in the City? MTA can either send a monthly pass to be hung on the

3 Voted

End Transit Inspections on Muni

Posted by [REDACTED] 12 days ago (Suggestion)
Let’s end the muni transit inspections. It is hostile for a supposedly “green” city to subject transit riders to this kind of harrassment. Dispatching police with guns seems an inappropriate response to fare evasion, and it can’t possibly be cost efficient. Let’s rethink our approach.

Posted by [REDACTED] 3 days ago (Suggestion)