CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
Meeting: July 15, 2025
Subject
Budget Adjustments related to the Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation and the Assistant City Manager and Deputy City Manager positions in the City Manager’s Office resulting in net savings of $62,586 for the City annually.
Recommended Action
1. Adopt Resolution No. 25 -___ approving Budget Modification No. 2425-399, increasing appropriations by $ 291,532 for the Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation.
2. Adopt Resolution No. 25 -___ amending the Unrepresented Employee’s Compensation Program to eliminate the Assistant City Manager position and modify the Deputy City Manager position, resulting in ongoing salary savings of $354,118 annually in the City Manager’s Office.
Background
The Interim City Manager has identified opportunities to streamline executive -level oversight without compromising City services. The proposed changes reflect a strategic realignment of responsibilities to better match the City’s current needs and long -term goals.
Reasons for Recommendation
The current structure of the City Manager's Office resulted from a series of incremental changes and decisions that created the positions of Deputy and Assistant City Manager.
In addition, in April 2025, the former City Manager reassigned the Economic Development Division to the Community Development Department and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to the Parks and Recreation Department.
This series of decisions has resulted in a City Manager’s Office that is perceived as top heavy, in that it has multiple management positions wit h less clearly defined responsibilities. In addition, transferring core City Manager's Office responsibilities for economic development and emergency management was not consistent with the best practices and unduly burdened the Community Development and Parks and Recreation Departments with responsibilities that are outside of those Departments’ core functions
and distract from the Department's core mission of providing services to Cupertino residents.
The Interim City Manager has determined that core City Manager's Office functions - economic development and emergency management, two of the city’s established focus areas - should return to the City Manager’s Office and be overseen by the Deputy City Manager. The updated Deputy City Manager job description (Attachments D and E ) reflects an expansion of responsibilities to include broader executive -level duties in addition to the continued oversight of emergency operations, economic development, City Clerk , legislative advocacy, citywide communications, and special project management. The revised role is also tasked with working with outside partners and providing key strategic support to the City Manager, Council, and departments.
This resolution asks Council to approve compensation for the revised scope for the Deputy City Manager position at an appropriate classification , which will result in an increase in costs to the City of $45,205 annually. The City Clerk is currently in the temporary out of class assignment as the Deputy City Manager per policy number 18 in the unrepresented employees compensation agreement.
In connection with the re alignment of the Deputy City Manager position, staff recommends eliminating the Assistant City Manager position. This position may have been created to address leadership gaps in the past in the City and is no longer needed, given Cupertino's size and budget. In some cases, the title of Deputy and Assistant City Managers is used interchangeably, and at times both positions may have overlapping duties, further adding to the lack of clarity of roles. The Assistant City Manager position has been vacant since June 2024, and staff expects no significant operational impact from eliminating the position.
Overall, this results in ongoing cost savings of $354,118 in the City Manager’s Office annually. This adjustment aligns with the City’s commitment to prudent fiscal management and organizational efficiency.
Conversely, our review of staffing levels found a need for an additional management - level staff to address critical public -facing functions in the Parks and Recreation Department. The Assistant Director for the Parks Department was defunded in 2024.
Adding this position back will improve efficiency by handling long -term planning, funding opportunities, and overall communication—freeing the Director to focus on high level policy making, and community partnerships. This role ensures stronger alignment with citywide goals and improves responsiveness to City Manager and Council priorities.
It also enhances the Department’s ability to deliver high-quality services, while allowing the Director to lead strategic initiatives that shape the future of parks and recreation in the community. Staff recommends Council approve a budget allocation of $291,532 for this position and adopt the draft Resolution (Attachment F).
Next Steps
If the recommended changes are approved, staff will move forward to eliminate the Assistant City Manager position, revise the Deputy City Manager’s essential duties and align the salary accordingly. Staff will also begin recruitment for the Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation. If not approved, the staffing levels will remain unchanged.
Sustainability Impact
No sustainability impact.
Fiscal Impact
Overall, the recommended changes will result in net annual savings of approximately $62,586 for the City.
The breakdown is as follows:
Elimination of ACM: -$399,323
Alignment of DCM: +$45,205
Asst. Director of P&R: +$291,532
-$62,586
These staffing changes will result in zero net change to the existing FTE’s in the City.
City Work Program (CWP) Item/Description
None
Council Goal:
Fiscal Strategy
California Environmental Quality Act
None
_____________________________________
Prepared by: Astrid Robles, Senior Management Analyst
Reviewed by: Kirsten Squarcia, Interim Deputy City Manager Floy Andrews, Interim City Attorney
Approved for Submission by: Tina Kapoor, Interim City Manager Attachments:
A – Draft Resolution Amending the Unrepresented Employee’s Compensation Program B – Amendments to the Unrepresented Employee’s Compensation Program – Clean C – Amendments to the Unrepresented Employee’s Compensation Program – Redline D – Deputy City Manager Job Description Revised July 2025 – Clean E – Deputy City Manager Job Description Revised July 2025 – Redline F – Draft Resolution Approving a Budget modification for Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation