2019-172 MowingDate: September 6, 2019 Report No. 2019-172
INFORMAL STAFF REPORT TO MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT: Transitioning contracted mowing in-house for City property
BACKGROUND: During the June 3 council meeting, Council Member Armintor requested information on the possibility of transitioning all contracted mowing of City owned property in-house to be performed by City employees. Council Member Armintor proposed a starting salary of $15 an hour for employees performing the work to support a living wage.
Currently, six City departments use a combination of internal staff and contract mowing services to maintain public property within their area. Those departments are: ·Denton Enterprise Airport (DTO)· Community Improvement (CIS)
· Denton Municipal Electric (DME)· Drainage· Parks and Recreation (PARD)· Water Reclamation
Additionally, PARD manages the contract for maintenance of City Hall properties, libraries, and fire stations. Solid Waste and Water Production performs all mowing in-house. Various departments are also responsible for city and state right-of-ways (ROW).
Mowing is required to maintain a safe work and user environment, meet City and other applicable
regulatory requirements, comply with the City/TxDOT Municipal Maintenance Agreement, keep areas free of litter and debris, and support an aesthetically pleasing landscape.
The current contract for mowing services was approved by Council on July 17, 2018, for one year with the option for two additional one-year extensions (RFP 6627). The contract includes five
service providers at a total not to exceed an amount of $2,250,000 for all three years. All departments listed, with the exception of CIS and Drainage, were included under the contract to improve contract management efficiencies, eliminate duplication of services, and maximize economies of scale for best pricing. CIS and Drainage are on a separate mowing contract primarily due to unaligned bid periods.
DISCUSSION: All departments worked together to assess city-owned properties maintained under the contract. Estimates to transition mowing maintenance in-house were formulated based on existing resource capacity of staff, equipment, and supplies, as well as pricing for the same.
The projected number of full-time employees (FTE) accounts for internal resources, property inventory, maintenance standards, and mowing cycles. FTE’s at $15/hour equals approximately
Date: September 6, 2019 Report No. 2019-171
$60,000 annually for salary plus benefits. Due to the volume of inventory and impact, PARD and CIS included the additional level of supervisory positions in the staff estimates.
One-time costs reflect the purchase of vehicles, trailers, and mowing equipment (mowers, edgers, weed eaters, blowers, and chain saws). Annual maintenance includes oil, gas, and equipment maintenance and repairs.
Department Acreage Contracted Cost New FTE's Staff Costs One-Time Equip. Cost
Annual Maintenance Cost
Airport 16.45 $17,100.00 3 P/T $64,500.00 $3,000.00
CIS 241.1 $352,659.75 12 F/T $891,437.40 $180,174.71 $39,281.50
DME 85.66 $58,460.00 3 F/T $167,862.00 $59,200.00 $3,000.00
Drainage 21.8 $28,057.50 3 F/T $180,000.00 $42,000.00 $3,000.00
Parks 701.16 $616,330.00 25 F/T $924,421.00 $647,973.00 $204,000.00
Water Rec 30.5 $21,836.00 2 F/T $120,000.00 $48,024.60 $3,000.00
Total 1096.67 $1,094,443.25 46.5 $2,348,220.40 $977,372.31 $255,281.50
Even though Solid Waste already performs their own landscape maintenance, the proposed living
wage posed a potential impact to their current fiscal operations. Current staff members who mow
are not affected by the proposed hourly rate. However, the department currently supplements labor through a temporary agency that pays $14.50/hour. Approximately 2,080 hours are budgeted, equivalent to a full-time employee, at an annual cost of $30,160. The hours are used as needed. The additional cost of benefits would be added if the department discontinued the use of the agency
and transitioned the position internally.
CONCLUSION: The City of Denton contracts out just over a 1,000 acres of mowing at an annual cost of approximately $1.1M. To bring mowing in-house, an estimated 46.5 FTE’s will be needed to
perform the maintenance at an annual cost of $2.6M. An additional $977,000 in one-time costs
will be needed to purchase the required equipment for property maintenance. This analysis does not include potential impacts to areas such as risk management for insurance and liability, worker’s compensation, capital replacements, housing of staff, and secure storage of equipment.
With direction from Council, staff could continue to explore the feasibility of mowing all city-
owned property with city staff. Factors such as property inventory, maintenance standards, and location would need to be considered as the new model is developed. In the interim, staff is moving forward with a study on merging existing mowing operations into
one division or unit within a department. Contract management and maintenance operations would
be centralized under one reporting structure, and resources would be combined to perform property maintenance duties. Overall, the grouping of city-wide mowing would be expected to gain efficiencies in operations and staffing inherently.
Date: September 6, 2019 Report No. 2019-171
STAFF CONTACT:
Laura Behrens
Assistant Director Parks and Recreation Laura.Behrens@cityofdenton.com REQUESTOR:
Council Member Deb Armintor PARTICIPTAING DEPARTMENTS: Denton Enterprise Airport (DTO) Community Improvement (CIS)
Denton Municipal Electric (DME)
Drainage Parks and Recreation (PARD) Water Reclamation Solid Waste
Human Resources
STAFF TIME TO COMPLETE REPORT: Denton Enterprise Airport (DTO) 4 hours Community Improvement (CIS) 20 hours
Denton Municipal Electric (DME) 4 hours Drainage 5 hours Parks and Recreation (PARD) 15 hours Water Reclamation 7 hours Solid Waste 10 hours
Human Resources 1 hour and 20 minutes Total Staff Time 66 hours and 20 minutes