Warren auditor lowers 2010 deficit projection

By Ed Runyan

The city is hoping for no layoffs in 2010.

WARREN — If nine retiring firefighters and four retiring police officers are not replaced, the city will face a relatively mild $700,000 deficit in 2010, Auditor David Griffing told the city council finance committee Tuesday afternoon.

In early September, Griffing projected the deficit to be around $2.5 million, but retirements and reduced costs for gasoline, natural gas and electricity have helped improve the city’s position, Griffing said.

With those retirements and $700,000 in concessions, city officials hope they will not need to make any layoffs in 2010, Griffing said.

The city negotiated with the city’s unions in the spring to get permission to defer one paycheck into 2010, but that won’t be necessary now, Griffing said.

The bad news is the city most likely won’t have a roughly $2.1 million balance beginning balance in 2010 like it had in 2009, Griffing said. The balance will be nearly zero.

As for the remaining $700,000 deficit in 2010, Griffing said the city administration hopes that much can be saved through wage and benefits concessions.

The retirements would drop the fire department to 50 firefighters from its current 60 and drop the police department from 61 officers to 57. An additional firefighter recently left the department for a job with the state, Griffing said.

Griffing plans to present the finance committee with a 2010 budget proposal sometime next week.

Meanwhile, Tom Angelo, Warren water pollution control director, said the downturn in the economy is benefiting the city in the form of lower costs for certain construction projects.

For instance, an engineer’s estimate for a storm-sewer project on Irene Avenue and University Street Northeast was $117,000, but the city is likely to approve the low bid of $69,000, Griffing said.

“Contractors are a lot more competitive,” Angelo said.

The project, which will replace a 12-inch storm sewer with a 36-inch sewer to alleviate flooding, is expected to begin later this month and take six weeks to complete. A zero-percent state loan will help with the cost of the project, Angelo told the finance committee.

runyan@vindy.com