MONEY WOES Campbell workers get no pay this week

Council authorized liens on several properties with unpaid water bills.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CAMPBELL -- City employees will go home empty-handed on payday again this week and will learn next week if they still have jobs.
"There's no way we're going to make payroll this week. We're hoping we can do it next week," Finance Director John Leskovyansky told members of city council before a regular meeting Wednesday evening.
The cash-strapped city was unable to make payroll two weeks ago and distributed paychecks almost a week late.
Today is the first payday since the city failed to make its payroll, and Mayor Jack Dill said paying employees on time may be an ongoing problem through August. He also said that he expects state Auditor Betty Montgomery to place the city in fiscal emergency.
Montgomery placed Campbell on fiscal watch March 8 after analysis of the city's financial records for fiscal 2002 revealed several city funds running deficits collectively totaling $588,725. If the payroll problem is not resolved, Montgomery would be forced to place the city in fiscal emergency within 90 days.
Layoffs coming
In an attempt to cut costs, Dill told council that some employees will be laid off. Who will be furloughed is yet to be determined, he said, but virtually every department will be affected.
Workers will learn their employment fate by early next week. Dill said he will meet with department heads and union officials over the next two days to determine where the cuts will be made.
Employees will be informed of the decision before it is made public, he added.
Contracts with city employees mandate that workers be given at least 14 days' notice before a layoff, so the soonest anyone could be furloughed is late April.
In another attempt to help resolve the city's financial problems, council amended water division regulations so that unpaid balances would be considered delinquent after 30 days, allowing the city to curtail service 60 days sooner than previous regulations permitted.
Unpaid water bills and income taxes, along with the city's disintegrating tax base and lack of new businesses, have contributed to the city's cash crunch, the mayor explained.
Unpaid water bills
Council also authorized the Mahoning County auditor to place liens on 44 properties with unpaid water bills.
The amounts of the unpaid bills, Leskovyansky explained, will be assessed on the tax bills for each of the properties. Amounts owed range from $76 to $1,111. This is the first wave of properties for which liens will be authorized, Leskovyansky said.
Council also approved an annual license tax of $5 on motor vehicles registered to city residents, established a firearms policy prohibiting anyone except law enforcement officers from carrying firearms in city-owned buildings and parking lots, and granted the Ohio Department of Transportation permission to replace a culvert on state Route 289.
The motor vehicle tax will take effect in January 2005. The firearms policy takes effect today in connection with Ohio's new concealed carry law.
kubik@vindy.com