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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Vegetation Management Program Cost Analysis February 20, 1990 by Jack Long Maintenance Planning Section The primary aim of this analysis is to separate and document the costs associated with the Vegetation Management Program's various management categories and to calculate an average City incurred cost for each of the various types of vegetation abatements enforced through this program. These per abatement costs can then serve as a basis for restructuring the vegeta- tion program's owner billing schedules, which has been called for by an independent hearings official hired by the City. These property owner billing schedules may be structured to recover varying percentages of the costs incurred by the City, depending upon management philosophy. As such, program costs have been documented according to 3 alternative methodologies that vary in the extent of cost recovery embraced. The first methodology will study the actual time and material costs spent on a typical vegetation abatement, carried to term, for each of the program's 3 management categories. These management categories are: vegetation nuisances on privately owned developed property; vegetation nuisances on privately owned undeveloped property; and vegetation nuisances on City owned property, primarily but not exclusively undeveloped. The second methodology will calculate a per abatement cost for each of the management categories by studying the total daily operations costs, not including administrative costs, associated with the management of this program for the 1989 calendar year. The third methodology will calculate a per abatement cost for each of the management categories by studying all the costs, whether they are operating expenses or administrative costs, that are associated with the management of this program for the 1989 calendar year. The first step in this analysis calculates the average percentage of annual time the Vegetation Manager devotes to the operation and administration of.the Vegetation Management Program. To this is added the time spent by the temporary summer aide. The resultant figure is total annual personal services time spent on this program. The next step breaks this total personal services time down between the 3 different management categories. This is accomplished by the use of an activity time matrix (Table I) that documents the average times involved in the performance of minor activities that, when taken together, make up the major enforcement operation functions of the program. The calculated totals of these activities, herein called function times, are then multiplied by the