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Commissioner wants 10% pay cut
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Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti
‘Floating holidays’ for workers would allow county services to be maintained.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County commissioners’ chairman has publicly proposed that his salary be reduced by 10 percent.
“Now is the time to lead by example,” Anthony T. Traficanti told a standing-room-only crowd just after he convened Thursday’s county commissioners’ meeting.
Each county commissioner earns $76,765 annually, a figure set by state law. The commissioners’ pay has risen slowly in recent years, with increases of 1.7 percent on Jan. 1, 2007, 2.52 percent a year later, and 0.274 percent (just over a quarter of 1 percent) at the beginning of this year.
“We’re looking at approximately a $6 million deficit,” in the county’s general fund, Traficanti said. The general fund is the county’s main operating fund.
The county’s Department of Job and Family Services has suffered a $5 million combined state- and federal-funding loss since 2007, he added.
Traficanti asked county Administrator George J. Tablack to immediately explore with the county prosecutor’s office the legal aspects of the pay cut he proposed for himself.
The two other county commissioners, John A. McNally IV and David N. Ludt, were noncommittal on that subject.
“I think Commissioner Ludt and I will be talking about that. And, I think, actually, the more prudent thing, instead of making these off-the-cuff pronouncements, is to discuss it with the board as a whole,” McNally said.
“I think it’s more prudent, actually, to have these discussions at a staff meeting, and then come to a commissioners’ meeting and pass the appropriate legislation,” he said, adding that Traficanti’s announcement was a surprise to him.
“I’m going to look at that, and I’m going to see where we are with it, and I’ll give you an answer later,” Ludt told The Vindicator after the meeting.
Tablack said he recommends that his work hours and pay be reduced by one day every two weeks for a 10 percent pay cut, which will wipe out the pay increase from $95,000 to $103,809 a year he had received last fall.
Tablack said he recommends that “floating holiday” strategy be considered for all departments under the commissioner’s office.
“It allows for a significant reduction in payroll costs, but keeping stabilized, I think, the level of service that we can provide to the taxpayers,” he explained. This practice also reduces the need for layoffs, he said.
Sacrificing one work day every two weeks was a key element in the concession-laden memorandum of understanding ratified by sheriff’s deputies last weekend and approved by a unanimous vote of the commissioners Thursday.
The agreement with the deputies, which runs through June 30, 2010, and is designed to produce $2.5 million in savings, also includes cutbacks in clothing allowances, longevity pay, holiday premium pay, hazardous duty pay and incentive pay for not using sick leave. It abolishes professional development and continuing education payments.
The concessions in that agreement provide most of the cost savings needed to keep the county’s main and misdemeanor jails open and fully-staffed, according to Sheriff Randall A. Wellington.
“It was critical that the jail remain open,” Tablack said, citing “the increase in crime that we experience each time a jail [shrinks] its operations.”
The sheriff’s department laid off 11 full-time deputies last month and left four other positions vacant to save $500,000 a year.
The deputies’ agreement says the county will seek similar concessions from employees of other general fund departments.
With $3 million in savings to be achieved in the sheriff’s department, which accounts for about half the general fund’s operating expenses, Tablack said he’ll seek to save a combined total of $3 million more in the county’s other general fund departments to cover the estimated $6 million shortfall.
“Every department is going to have to do exactly what’s going on out in the real world, and that’s try to figure out how to do more with less,” Tablack said.
The commissioners also heard from several Teamsters Local 377 members, who work in JFS’ child support enforcement agency, concerning the prospect of layoffs in that department.
“If everyone is willing to take concessions at all levels ... it may be enough to counter layoffs,” said Mary Beth Cook, intake supervisor.
“If we can come together as an agency to make the necessary sacrifices, it may be enough to save jobs, and we can continue to serve the public,” she added.
“At least give it a try,” Sandra L. Rossi, a customer service supervisor, said of concessions without layoffs. “Don’t start immediately casting out the pink slips,” she urged the commissioners.
milliken@vindy.com