Question: What additional staffing and associated costs would be required in the Office of Management and Budget to provide more support for the collective bargaining process?

Response: OMB could continue to support the collective bargaining process without redirecting existing resources from the budget development process by gaining an additional FTE or increasing their consulting services funding. Collective bargaining is not a year-round responsibility for OMB, but it would be difficult to hire and maintain a seasonal or part-time position that solely focuses on collective bargaining, so an additional full-time FTE would assume other responsibilities outside of providing support to the collective bargaining process. A Budget Management Analyst I typically costs between $100,000-$110,000 in salary and benefits.  

Consulting services funding would allow OMB to pay a temporary consultant/contractor to support the collective bargaining process under the supervision of the department's personnel analyst.  The preliminary cost estimate for consulting support is between $50,000-$100,000. That work would involve building a costing model (one per bargaining unit in active negotiation) that accounts for multi-year costs associated with positions’ merit increases and benefits. It would also provide support to ensure that the cost analyses take into account the City’s budget assumptions, which is an important aspect of all negotiations. Additional costs could be incurred based on the number of articles beyond wage restructuring that require fiscal impact analyses (e.g., shift differential, overtime, longevity bonus, staffing schedule changes).  

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