City of El Paso claims $1M in budget savings by having fewer department heads

EL PASO, Texas -- More than $1 million have been freed up after El Paso city leaders decided to consolidate several department head positions. City officials have faced a steep budgetary challenge with the outbreak of Covid-19.

“We were able to condense several positions into one and we were able to save $1.1 million dollars. We’ve really felt like we needed to do that in order to tighten our belts at the senior level,” City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said.

The move comes months after the city announced it would be Furloughing staff to deal with the budget restrictions. City officials initially reported furloughing hundreds of positions. However, the bulk of those were temporary contracts.

"We were looking at gearing up for the opening of the water parks and going back to January of 2020 we had started the returning process and so unfortunately with the pandemic hitting we didn’t need that positions to come on board after all,” the city's Chief Financial Officer Robert Cortinas said.

Out of the initial positions furloughed many that were temporary contract hires, got a chance to apply to work for the city. These employees are the ones working in Covid-19 capacities, including testing sites etc.

Cortinas said there were 156 permanent positions that were 'actually' furloughed. The 156 positions represented more senior positions, including civil service employees. By furloughing the employees, city officials say they were able to continue to provide health insurance, life insurance and other benefits.

Now that the city is transitioning to consolidating department heads, officials say they'll be able to provide the same services at a lower cost to the taxpayer.

“Ellen Smyth is an example. She was over at sanitation and when we took the operation back in, Sun Metro, she’s over Sun Metro as well," Gonzalez said. "She’s now managing director,  what that then includes is not only do we save money in not having two executives, just one, then we adjust her pay and she becomes a managing director.”

While the city is finding ways to save money, officials say those savings are being relocated due to the pandemic.

“Those practices have worked really well for us, especially during times like this—like a pandemic that we’re dealing with, and again—those savings have come up in at a very good time in order for not only for us to save money and use those dollars for testing or for vaccine distribution," Gonzalez said.

The city has had to rely primarily on its own budget given that CARES act funding can only be used for Covid-19 related problems. Officials say the city is on solid fiscal ground, in contrast to 2013 when the city faced a deficit.

“As horrible as this health pandemic has been, if this would have happened in 2013 (or) 2014 and there would have been no federal assistance the city would have wiped out all of the federal funds reserves in response to this pandemic,” Cortinas said.