EXECUTIVE SUMMARY <br /> Vegetation Management Program <br /> Cost Analysis <br /> March 30, 1990 <br /> by <br /> Jack Long <br /> Maintenance Planning Section <br /> The primary aim of this analysis is to examine, separate, and document the <br /> costs associated with the Vegetation Management Program's various management <br /> categories and to calculate an average City incurred cost for each of the <br /> various types of vegetation abatements enforced through this program. These <br /> per abatement costs will then serve as the starting point for restructuring <br /> the vegetation program's owner billing schedules. Such billing schedule <br /> restructuring has been called for by an independent hearings official hired by <br /> the City with concurrence from the City Attorney's Office. <br /> The secondary aim of this analysis is to calculate the average City incurred <br /> cost for each nuisance complaint or property that was inspected but not abated <br /> by the City. Since these costs are not currently being recovered through <br /> property owner billings, they will only serve to illustrate the expense the <br /> Vegetation Management Program must absorb for each enforcement operation <br /> "success ". By "success" we mean those vegetation nuisance enforcements that <br /> are ultimately resolved by the property owners themselves. <br /> The first step in this analysis calculates the average percentage of annual <br /> time the Vegetation Manager devotes to the operation and administration of the <br /> Vegetation Management Program. To this is added the time spent by the <br /> temporary summer aide. The resultant figure is total annual personal services <br /> time spent on this program. <br /> The next step breaks this total personal services time down between the 3 <br /> different management categories. This is accomplished by the use of an <br /> activity time matrix (Table I) that documents the average times involved in <br /> the performance of minor activities that, when taken together, make up the <br /> major enforcement operation functions of the program. The calculated totals <br /> of these activities, herein called function times, are then multiplied by the <br /> number of such enforcement functions performed during the 1989 calendar year. <br /> The resultant figures then give us the total time spent on each of the various <br /> functions for the entire year (Table II). Since these function times have <br /> been segregated into their respective management categories, the amount of <br /> annual operations time spent in each management category is easily derived by <br /> adding the annual function times within each category. Dividing this by the <br /> total of all the function times, we get the percentages of total program <br /> operations spent in each management category. <br />