Layoffs, other cuts amount to $3.2M

By Ed Runyan

Warren’s mayor said developing the budget plan was the most difficult time of his life.

WARREN — Thirty-one police officers and firefighters will be laid off starting Jan. 1 to balance the city’s 2009 budget.

An additional eight employees in other departments will lose their jobs Jan. 1, and one will be gone May 1.

Those job reductions, along with cuts in other expenses, will add up to $3.2 million, Mayor Michael O’Brien told city council Monday as he unveiled his gloom-filled budget proposal.

The city actually needed to cut about $1.2 million compared to its 2008 budget of $28.7 million, but layoffs are expensive in other terms besides the human element, Auditor David Griffing pointed out.

The cost of laying off 40 people in terms of unemployment benefits for 26 weeks and paying off their vacation and their buildup of compensation time adds an additional $1.2 million cost, he said.

Adding one more misery to the city’s economic woes for 2009 is the fact that 2009 has one more pay period than 2008, which costs an additional $800,000.

O’Brien previously said the drop in income tax collections from companies like Delphi Packard would require elimination of 54 jobs, but the city was able to eliminate 15 of those from the payroll while keeping them working.

They did this by transferring 15 people from departments that use tax money to operate and putting them in vacancies in departments that take in revenue, like water, sewer and garbage collection.

“This is the most difficult time of my life,” O’Brien said of the weeks of budget meetings to arrive at the spending plan.

In addition to the reductions in police and fire, the city also either laid off or transferred workers in departments such as income tax, engineering and road department.

Warren Municipal Court will avoid layoffs by raising court and probation fees by $200,000.

The proposal to reduce police officers by 20 has been controversial, with voters making permanent an income tax increase for safety forces in 2007 that residents hoped would keep officers and firefighters on the job.

But O’Brien said there is a misconception that the 1 percent being collected for safety forces is enough to cover expenses.

In reality, the tax raises around $9 million per year, while safety forces budgets have risen from $15 million to $18 million between 2002 and 2008, O’Brien said.

The 20 fewer police officers take the department down to 62 officers plus Chief John Mandopoulos, O’Brien said.

With that kind of staffing, Mandopoulos said Monday, he will have to convert most of the department’s detectives to patrolmen, which will reduce the amount of investigation that can be done.

“We’ll get there and make sure the public is safe, and that’s it,” he said.

Minor incidents, such as vandalism calls, may not even be answered if officers are very busy, he said.

The fire department is likely to have to close the Atlantic Street fire station, Chief Ken Nussle has said. That one would likely be chosen because it is closer to the main station on South Street than the other station, on Parkman Road.

The budget was given to city council’s finance committee Monday, with the full council having a chance to discuss in at a meeting Wednesday night.

Council is required to approve a 2009 budget by Dec. 31.

When asked by council members Monday about various parts of the budget, such as whether more management should have been eliminated, O’Brien repeatedly reminded them that council has the final say on the document.

The city has already notified the 55 employees affected by the budget, however, of their layoff or transfer to another department. In some cases, employees have already transferred to their new job if their seniority allowed them to keep a job but “bump” to a different one in the city.

Asked whether the city should be providing an ice skating rink in Courthouse Square again this year considering the budget crisis, O’Brien noted that the cost of the rink is being paid by private donors.

runyan@vindy.com