Martinez’s city staff may not work in the city at all. That’s the case with Planning Manager Terry Blount. He lives and works in Los Angeles. His remotely operated job requires him to only be part-time, one of the budget solutions to materialize out of the most recent budget battles.

His new, part-time responsibilities require only 20 or so hours per week and the occasional trip back to Martinez for meetings. When he has to travel, the city is paying for his flight, but hasn’t said whether or not they will pay hotel and expenses too. Even with the travel, the new arrangement helped the city close an $800,000 budget gap.

One of his main responsibilities is working on the city’s update to its general plan, which was originally slated to cost $600,000. But as the budget cuts forced Blount to go from full-time to part-time, the budget for the general plan was also cut, by a third.

From the Martinez News-Gazette:
The City of Martinez’s Planning Manager is now living in Los Angeles and working remotely on a part-time basis, confirmed officials this week.

City Hall is paying the airfare for Terry Blount to travel to Martinez once every five or six weeks, said Assistant City Manager Alan Shear.

“He is coming up for a handful of meetings,” said Shear. “From the City’s perspective, it was a cost-efficient way to keep the General Plan update project on target and achieve necessary salary savings.”

Read the full article here.
http://www.martinezgazette.com/news/story/i3171/2011/09/18/remote-planning-manager-outcome-budget-cuts