43
City budget looms; 34 workers face layoff
Photo
Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams
Photo
Youngstown finance director David Bozanich
Police layoffs in Youngstown would compromise safety, an officers’ union chief says.
YOUNGSTOWN — Up to 34 city workers would be laid off, and about 14 vacant positions would remain unfilled in a 2009 budget that city council will consider today.
The city administration had requested that members of six employee unions paid through the city’s general fund take a voluntary 10-percent pay cut by working four fewer hours a week to avoid layoffs. That’s because the city’s 2009 general fund has a projected $3.3 million deficit.
That request was rejected, though union leaders are to meet Tuesday with city officials to discuss the budget. Layoffs wouldn’t take effect for a few more weeks, Mayor Jay Williams said.
The budget — which by law must be balanced and approved no later than Tuesday — prepared by the administration makes up that $3.3 million shortfall.
The largest revenue increase to the general fund is $1.84 million from the federal economic stimulus package. The largest cut is $860,000 in personnel costs.
Of that personnel amount, $655,000 would come from the police department with the rest from employees of the street and park departments and clerical workers.
“I don’t want to lay off a single employee of the city of Youngstown,” Williams said. “It’s beyond my sole power to do so. We need to reduce the cost of government, and some [city workers] don’t like that.”
The city has about 850 employees.
Because of the city’s costs for unemployment benefits, its contribution to health insurance premiums for those losing their jobs and severance payments, each laid-off worker saves the city about $25,000 to $30,000 a year, said Finance Director David Bozanich.
That would mean about 22 to 26 police officers would lose their jobs and a total of about 7 to 8 other workers from street, park and clerical.
Losing that many police officers would jeopardize the city’s safety, said Edward Colon, president of the 116-member police patrol officers union and vice chairman of the Solidarity Group, which includes officials from each of the eight unions representing city workers.
“I don’t even want to fathom the impact,” Colon said. “There’s about 30 patrolmen on a [work shift]. If you lay off that many officers, that’s almost one whole [shift]. We’re at our lowest numbers in the past 30 years. We’re so low now that to even consider laying off that many people won’t just impact the department, you’re talking about the safety of the community. It’s very disturbing.”
Williams says there won’t be a reduction in the number of officers patrolling the streets even with the cuts.
Council has no choice but to pass a balanced budget and that means layoffs, said Councilman DeMaine Kitchen, D-2nd and vice chairman of the finance committee.
Kitchen said he hopes Tuesday’s meeting, and ones that could follow, will result in reducing the number of layoffs.
“The following few weeks will tell the tale,” he said.
As a way to avoid a deficit, the city is increasing its monthly residential garbage collection fee from $11.75 to $13.75. That would raise about $250,000 annually, Bozanich said.
The monthly garbage collection fee in surrounding communities is $18 to $19, Bozanich said.
skolnick@vindy.com