FISCAL WATCH Officials decide on layoffs

In recent weeks, the city failed to make payroll on two consecutive paydays.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CAMPBELL -- April 30 will be the last day on the job for some workers who will be furloughed to cut costs in this cash-strapped city.
Mayor Jack Dill, city department heads and union officials met early Thursday to determine who would be laid off.
How long the workers -- a custodian, laborer and working foreman in the street department, operator and meter reader in the water department, and two or three firefighters -- will be off the job is uncertain.
Whether more layoffs will follow is also uncertain.
If the state auditor places Campbell in fiscal emergency, the state will develop a plan to restore the city's solvency, and that could include more layoffs.
"I hope there wouldn't be anymore layoffs, because I don't know where we could cut anymore," the mayor said. "We're not top-heavy anywhere." However, he conceded, it is possible that the state could mandate more layoffs.
Put on fiscal watch
State Auditor Betty Montgomery placed Campbell on fiscal watch early last month after analysis of the city's financial records for fiscal 2002 revealed several funds operating in deficit.
In recent weeks, the city failed to make payroll on two consecutive paydays because of a lack of funds. If that situation isn't rectified within 90 days, Montgomery would be obligated to place Campbell in fiscal emergency.
Dill said he expects the city to be placed in fiscal emergency and hopes the state will recognize Campbell's attempts to cut costs and to collect monies owed the city, such as unpaid water bills and city income taxes.
City workers, who were to have been paid Thursday, aren't happy about not being paid on time, Dill said, "but they buckle down and do what they have to do. They know the city is in a financial crisis and they care about their city. We're very fortunate in that sense."
Workers are still showing up on time and putting in a full day's work, he said.
Because the city does not want to violate any contracts with workers, the mayor added, city and union officials are working together to keep the city operating and moving out of this financial crisis as soon as possible.
kubik@vindy.com