Mayor O’Brien’s giveback should be common event

Just weeks after the unions representing most employees in Warren city government agreed to have their wages frozen and to pay 10 percent of their health insurance premiums, Mayor Michael O’Brien wrote a check to the treasury for $1,756, representing a giveback of 2 percent of his salary this year. O’Brien also agreed to the same 90-10 plan for the premium on his health insurance coverage.

The mayor’s making common cause with Warren’s workers is worthy of recognition because it is such a rare occurrence in government. His taking a pay cut and the co-payment for the health-insurance premium are a recognition that the good old days of government when the public treasury was treated like a private bank account are gone forever.

Today’s reality begins and ends with belt-tightening. And since at least 80 percent of just about every operating budget in the public sector is dedicated to wages and benefits, cuts are inevitable. The sources of revenue to operate government are drying up; tax increases are not a safe subject for any public official to raise; and tax renewals are anything but guaranteed in the midst of an economic recession.

Thus, public sector workers have been dragged — many kicking and screaming — into the world of private sector employees, where job security is a wish, wage freezes or even cuts are a reality, and benefits, such as health care and pensions, are a luxury — due to the economic collapse.

Mayor O’Brien offered a we’re-all-in-this-together explanation for why he decided to return a portion of his salary:

“The whole point in taking the 2 percent pay cut is, all our employees did. I wouldn’t ask city employees to do something I wasn’t willing to do myself.”

Contract talks in late 2009 and early this year centered on employees helping city government through concessions for 2010.

The mayor gave back $4,389 of his pay in 2009, which represented his 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase and an additional 5 percent of his pay.

No COLA

This year, no elected officials are getting a cost-of-living adjustment because it is tied to U.S. Consumer Price Index which showed no overall increase in the price of goods and services between the third quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009.

While city Auditor David Griffing and city council members Al Novak and Fiore Dippolito were the only other city elected officials to give up their cost-of-living increase last year, the mayor is the only one so far this year who has pulled out his check book.

“I expect other elected officials to follow,” O’Brien said. So do the residents of the city of Warren.

This isn’t about punishment or envy. It’s about the taxpayers in the private sector being stretched thin financially and wondering whether government officials get it.

The decision by the unions to do what was in the best interest of the community resulted in the erasing of a $690,000 shortfall in Warren’s operating budget this year.

A year ago, the administration laid off 11 firefighters and did not replace four others who retired in 2008. In addition, 20 jobs were eliminated in the police department, and eight in other city departments.

As we noted in an editorial on Jan. 7 when we applauded Warren’s city employees for their spirit of cooperation, “Concessions must be the order of the day — not only for Warren but for all public sector entities in the Mahoning Valley.”

And we added, “This is not the time for pay raises — even in those communities that are not experiencing budgetary pressures.”

The economic recovery is not going to occur any time soon and so it is incumbent upon every public sector employee to adopt the following mind set:

Having a job is a blessing and should not be taken for granted.