Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
What budget shortfalls?
Anonymously contributed (title added by BLOG moderator):
Check out this Wall St Journal article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125910876247663245.html
Check out this Wall St Journal article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125910876247663245.html
Monday, November 23, 2009
Is salary management worth the effort?
Anonymously contributed:
Why does LLNL senior management bother with the appraisal and salary management charade when the management process costs much more than the managed funds dispensed?
How much effort will a 200 really put in for the wonderful 1% average reward, when medical and tax increases take most? Why try indeed.
Consider that the full LLNS fee annually exceeds by four times the amount of the whole professional annual salary increase package. Nice, huh?
Why does LLNL senior management bother with the appraisal and salary management charade when the management process costs much more than the managed funds dispensed?
How much effort will a 200 really put in for the wonderful 1% average reward, when medical and tax increases take most? Why try indeed.
Consider that the full LLNS fee annually exceeds by four times the amount of the whole professional annual salary increase package. Nice, huh?
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Lab isn't the only one in Livermore facing hard times...
Anonymous said...
Big cuts in store for Livermore
By Jeanine Benca
Contra Costa Times
11/20/2009
LIVERMORE — Street signs will be repainted less often, police response to non-emergencies will be slower and library hours will be fewer under a staggering proposal to scale back city services.
Across-the-board reductions are needed to fill an unanticipated $3.2 million deficit caused by statewide sales tax dips and other factors, Livermore officials said. The city council will discuss the city manager's financial update and recommended cuts Monday.
"We've been able to weather the storm for quite some time without layoffs or service reductions," said assistant city manager Troy Brown. "Unfortunately, we're to the point now where we're having to have difficult discussions."
The recession has already taken a toll on city coffers.
Since 2008, Livermore has lost some $8.7 million in sales tax, property tax and other revenues. Until now, creative accounting measures, employee salary and benefit concessions, voluntary buyouts and slashes to "non-essentials" have been sufficient to stave off deeper cuts, Brown said.
But recent, statewide developments are forcing city leaders to consider reductions that would affect city workers and community members.
California sales and use tax receipts for the 2009/10 fiscal year are expected to be about 6 percent lower than in 2008/09, resulting in a $795,000 loss to the city. Also, the state plans to "recapture" about $2.4 million in overestimated, 2008-09 sales tax reimbursements, according to staff reports.
Livermore isn't the only city affected — it is estimated state payments this year will be nearly 28 percent lower than originally anticipated for all California cities.
To cope with the budgetary blow, Livermore is proposing to cut 11.5 full-time positions from its 482-employee staff. If approved, nearly every department will be affected, including public works, maintenance, community development, traffic and public safety.
A big blow could be in store for non-emergency police services. While the response time to "first priority" police calls won't change, the time to respond to document requests, animal control and other second- and third-priority calls are likely. Changes could result in fewer property crimes being investigated, reductions to the gang unit and increased processing times, according to staff reports.
Another cut would cut Rincon and Springtown library branch hours from 53 to 23 hours, leaving them open just three days a week. Main library hours would remain the same.
That potential change drew criticism from Springtown resident Linda Avila.
"I don't know what it will take to make their budget, but I think there's other ways," she said. "We need our libraries. The libraries keep these kids off the street, give them a place to go to use the computer —and it's a safe place."
Other recommendations include reducing street sign, street light and landscape maintenance, consolidating staff in human resources, city manager and city clerk offices, and scaling back community development and engineering services.
The council meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday at the Council Chambers, 3575 Pacific Avenue, Livermore.
November 20, 2009 8:18 PM
Big cuts in store for Livermore
By Jeanine Benca
Contra Costa Times
11/20/2009
LIVERMORE — Street signs will be repainted less often, police response to non-emergencies will be slower and library hours will be fewer under a staggering proposal to scale back city services.
Across-the-board reductions are needed to fill an unanticipated $3.2 million deficit caused by statewide sales tax dips and other factors, Livermore officials said. The city council will discuss the city manager's financial update and recommended cuts Monday.
"We've been able to weather the storm for quite some time without layoffs or service reductions," said assistant city manager Troy Brown. "Unfortunately, we're to the point now where we're having to have difficult discussions."
The recession has already taken a toll on city coffers.
Since 2008, Livermore has lost some $8.7 million in sales tax, property tax and other revenues. Until now, creative accounting measures, employee salary and benefit concessions, voluntary buyouts and slashes to "non-essentials" have been sufficient to stave off deeper cuts, Brown said.
But recent, statewide developments are forcing city leaders to consider reductions that would affect city workers and community members.
California sales and use tax receipts for the 2009/10 fiscal year are expected to be about 6 percent lower than in 2008/09, resulting in a $795,000 loss to the city. Also, the state plans to "recapture" about $2.4 million in overestimated, 2008-09 sales tax reimbursements, according to staff reports.
Livermore isn't the only city affected — it is estimated state payments this year will be nearly 28 percent lower than originally anticipated for all California cities.
To cope with the budgetary blow, Livermore is proposing to cut 11.5 full-time positions from its 482-employee staff. If approved, nearly every department will be affected, including public works, maintenance, community development, traffic and public safety.
A big blow could be in store for non-emergency police services. While the response time to "first priority" police calls won't change, the time to respond to document requests, animal control and other second- and third-priority calls are likely. Changes could result in fewer property crimes being investigated, reductions to the gang unit and increased processing times, according to staff reports.
Another cut would cut Rincon and Springtown library branch hours from 53 to 23 hours, leaving them open just three days a week. Main library hours would remain the same.
That potential change drew criticism from Springtown resident Linda Avila.
"I don't know what it will take to make their budget, but I think there's other ways," she said. "We need our libraries. The libraries keep these kids off the street, give them a place to go to use the computer —and it's a safe place."
Other recommendations include reducing street sign, street light and landscape maintenance, consolidating staff in human resources, city manager and city clerk offices, and scaling back community development and engineering services.
The council meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday at the Council Chambers, 3575 Pacific Avenue, Livermore.
November 20, 2009 8:18 PM
Friday, November 20, 2009
Big news from LLNL
Anonymous said...
IBM uses Blue Gene supercomputer to model neural behavior of a cat brain.
Of all the things DOE could do with that class of computer, you would think that someone would come up with a better project than that.
November 18, 2009 7:16 PM
IBM uses Blue Gene supercomputer to model neural behavior of a cat brain.
Of all the things DOE could do with that class of computer, you would think that someone would come up with a better project than that.
November 18, 2009 7:16 PM
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Physics Today has an article about what went wrong with the LANL/LLNL contract. http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstod...
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The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will have a huge negative effect on the ...
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Global Security Newswire U.S. Nuclear Weapons Agency to Delay Work on Interoperable Warhead By Global Security Newswire Staff February 18, ...
