Outsiders should analyze spending by Youngstown

To hear Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey tell it, the cupboard is bare and the city's safety forces had better face up to the reality of a wage freeze. But police union officials offer a different story, one that suggests the mayor's poor-mouth posture is nothing more than an attempt to deflect attention from his administration's handling of the public dollars. And so it goes in this year of contract negotiations.
Who's right? If you believe that government workers are overpaid and that what has been taking place in the private sector should be replicated in the public sector, you'll find McKelvey's arguments compelling. But if you believe that the services provided by police and firefighters are priceless and that the safety forces should top government's spending priority list, then you'll side with the Youngstown Police Ranking Officers Organization.
Only an independent analysis of Youngstown government's finances will provide the kind of objective insight that would allow taxpayers to decide whether the mayor is correct in his contention, or whether the unions are right in arguing that the city can afford to grant pay raises over the life of the new contract.
A blue-ribbon commission made up of community leaders selected by the mayor, city council and the unions should be appointed to conduct a general review of the budget and to analyze the payroll to determine if salaries paid to the mayor on down are justified. In the past, there have been comparative studies conducted to show that the wages and benefits do not exceed the norm. But such a comparison is no longer valid, given that Youngstown's population hovers at the 80,000 mark and that the residential tax base remains anemic.
One of the questions the commission would want to explore is this: Is it time to change the way salaries for the mayor on down are determined?
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Because raises for the upper echelon are linked to police contracts -- which are the standard for all other labor agreements -- there is a continual boosting of the payroll in city hall.
This year, for example, the mayor, finance director and law director received increases amounting to 7 percent. That's because in 2001, contracts gave police captains and assistant fire chiefs about $3,200 more than their chiefs. That prompted city council to give the chiefs raises so they would earn $1,300 more than their closest underlings.
Then because the finance and law directors are above the police and fire chiefs, they received raises to keep them ahead. Finally, the mayor's salary is set by city charter, which says that the finance and law directors are to make 80 percent of the mayor's salary. And when the numbers were finally crunched, McKelvey's annual salary rose to nearly $100,000 this year.
Management does contribute 10 percent of the monthly health care premium the city pays and makes new copayments on doctor visits and prescriptions. The police union in the current contract talks has shown little interest in burden sharing.
The commission is needed because individuals on the public payroll cannot be objective when it comes to determining whether they are being overpaid for working in a city of Youngstown's size.
In Pittsburgh, which is facing a $100 million budget shortfall, an independent analysis of the budget is being conducted and the preliminary findings confirm what many in private sector have long known: Cuts in spending cannot be avoided.
Here's how the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the findings: "Since some two-thirds of the city's costs in its $390 million budget are workforce-related, the preliminary plans include a multiyear wage freeze for city workers, staff cuts to the Fire Bureau and administrative positions citywide and changes to health benefits and workers' compensation rules."
Bitter medicine, but there is no other cure for what ails just about every city in the economically distressed industrial Midwest.
Such medicine needs to be prescribed for Youngstown city government, but the prescription won't come from city hall. That's why a blue-ribbon commission of community leaders is necessary.