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City pays to cut costs
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Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams
Youngstown to spend $300,000 for severance and back pay.
YOUNGSTOWN — The cash-strapped city is spending about $300,000 to get seven police officers off the payroll.
The city’s board of control is to approve $225,668.73 in severance packages today to six ranking officers who took an early-retirement buyout last month.
The money is for unused sick and vacation time the officers accrued during their time on the force.
The board must also pay a severance to Lt. Tom Mylott, who took the buyout. His amount hasn’t been finalized.
On Wednesday, city council approved paying $70,000 in back pay and damages to Patrolman Daniel Tickerhoof. Board of control members say they expect to give final approval to the Tickerhoof settlement shortly.
Tickerhoof would also receive about $1,500 for unused sick and vacation time in severance pay from the city, said Mayor Jay Williams, the board of control’s chairman.
As part of that deal, Tickerhoof would leave the Youngstown police force.
Between the six retirees and Tickerhoof, the city is paying about $300,000 to get the seven officers off the payroll.
“It’s a short-term hit for a long-term gain,” Williams said. “It’s a little bit of pain now, but it’s not costs we’ll be bearing next year and in the future.”
The officers aren’t being replaced, which will result in a savings of about $100,000 annually for each in salary, health-care costs and other perks beginning in 2010, said city Finance Director David Bozanich.
The early-retirement offer gives each officer a year’s base salary paid over five years beginning in 2010.
The city is operating with a deficit of more than $1 million, and will lay off employees to make up a portion or all of that shortfall, Bozanich and Williams said.
The buyouts and the Tickerhoof settlement won’t save the financially challenged city any money this year, Bozanich said.
The severance payments and the money to Tickerhoof will leave the city with an additional hole of about $10,000, Bozanich said.
The city is saving money by not having to pay salaries, overtime, health-care benefits and other expenses for those officers, he said.
City administration officials have talked since the beginning of the year about layoffs, But, to date, no city workers have been laid off.
Williams and Bozanich said Wednesday that the city is putting together a preliminary layoff list, and job cuts will occur in the next 30 days.
“You have to look at how our operations will work when deciding on layoffs,” Williams said. “We want to keep service intact.”
Earlier this year, city officials estimated the number of job cuts at 30 to 38.
That’s probably a bit on the high end right now, city officials say, because of the seven police officers taking the early-retirement buyouts, and Tickerhoof leaving the force.
The city fired Tickerhoof in September 2006 because he moved from Youngstown to Canal Fulton in Summit County.
Tickerhoof moved after the state Legislature voted in June 2006 to overturn residency requirement laws in cities, villages and counties in Ohio for their workers as a condition of employment.
The city fired Tickerhoof contending he violated the city’s residency law that requires all of its employees hired since 1986 to live in Youngstown.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled two months ago that the state law was constitutional and didn’t violate cities’ home-rule authority.
Youngstown was forced last month to rehire Tickerhoof and a firefighter, fired in late 2006 after moving to Poland.
skolnick@vindy.com