Mayor will take 10% pay cut

By David Skolnick

Youngstown’s mayor says concessions are needed from most city workers to avert layoffs. He also plans to take a 10 percent reduction in his salary.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams is asking most city employees to work four fewer hours a week, which would cut their wages 10 percent, to avoid layoffs.

Facing a $3.39 million deficit, the city administration is looking to make cuts. But with 80 percent of the general fund’s cost going toward the salaries and benefits of its 850 workers, the biggest cut has to come from there, Williams said.

“The overall concept is if we can operate on a 36-hour work week, we’ll be able to achieve savings to close the deficit and avoid layoffs,” Williams told The Vindicator on Friday after speaking at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s “Good Morning Youngstown” breakfast.

“It keeps people working and allows them to keep their benefits,” Williams said of the plan.

A formal written plan will be presented to the city’s unions shortly, he said.

During the chamber event at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Hall, Williams announced he would take a 10-percent “concession in my salary and benefits.”

When asked later by the newspaper about the 10-percent concession, Williams said he’d reduce his $105,000 annual salary by that percentage — a figure equal to $10,500 — through a combination of a pay cut and givebacks on some of his benefits. The mayor would work the same hours for less pay.

Without a salary concession, layoffs are inevitable, Williams said. Even with the concession, there’s no guarantee that some jobs will not be cut, he said.

Under a worst-case scenario, the city would have to lay off 60 to 80 full-time employees to make up the budget shortfall, city administrators say.

“If we get through this year and close that deficit without layoffs, it will be because our employee labor groups understood the need to help contribute,” Williams told those at the chamber breakfast. “If we don’t, it will be unfortunate that [the employee unions] don’t see the necessity to” cut costs.

After the breakfast, Williams and members of his administration met with leaders of the Youngstown Police Association, which represents about 120 patrol officers, to discuss concession proposals. The administration will meet with other unions next week.

YPA President Edward Colon couldn’t be reached Friday.

The administration has been critical of the YPA in recent years, including complaints last year that the union wouldn’t agree to concessions.

City council agreed last summer to reduce the number of ranking officers from 66 to 39 through attrition, a process that would largely take place over two years. YPA and the union that represents the police department’s ranking officers objected to the decision.

The administration has repeatedly praised the firefighters union for agreeing to an early-retirement program last year that saves the city about $1.5 million over a two-year period, 2008 and 2009.

Also, the city finalized a three-year contract Thursday with the union that represents about 140 in the fire department. The deal calls for a 3-percent wage increase in its first year. It also includes a provision to have the union and the administration reopen wage-increase negotiations in August.

When asked if the 10-percent wage reduction applied to firefighters, Williams wouldn’t directly answer the question.

But he said the firefighters “already made substantial concessions. We made it clear to the firefighters that their savings to the system helped the overall savings.” of last year. The goal is to maintain services.”

skolnick@vindy.com