Struthers council restores pay cuts
By jeanne starmack
struthers
City council unanimously voted to restore pay cuts the mayor and auditor took in 2008.
Before a packed meeting room Wednesday evening, council restored $10,000 to auditor Tina Morell’s salary, bringing it from $37,904 to $47,380. Mayor Terry Stocker’s salary was restored from $33,904 to $41,468. The increases will occur in increments of thirds over the next three years.
Council members said they believe they righted a wrong committed by previous council members who cut the salaries as revenge for having lost their bids for re-election and for the ousting of Dan Mamula, who’d been mayor for 16 years before Stocker defeated him in May 2007. Morell had supported Stocker. She was beginning her second four-year term.
No employees spoke on the record at the meeting. Union leaders told The Vindicator before and afterward that they understand the move was to restore the pay. But, they said, they do not believe now is the time for such a restoration.
The economy is bad, they said, and city employees have had to take pay freezes and health-care concessions. The police and fire departments still are down one person each, the leaders of the firefighters and police unions said.
After the vote, Morell addressed council. She acknowledged that some employees have not received raises since 2008. The police department has not, she said, though firefighters have.
The firefighters took a pay freeze in their new contract over the next three years. The city is expected to begin talks with police this summer.
Morell said, however, that she believes the police and fire departments are not understaffed. She said there is one firefighter for every 1,139 people in the city, compared with one for 1,412 people 10 years ago. She said there is one police officer for every 714 people, compared with one for every 794 people 10 years ago.
She also defended the city’s efforts to control health-care costs, saying the concession was in a spousal carve-out. The city went to a four-tier system last year, and spouses who have access to health care that is comparable to the city’s are expected to take it as long as it doesn’t result in more out-of- pocket expenses.
Morell said the city has saved $400,000 with the health-care change. “That has allowed us to maintain services in the city,” she said.
She noted she respects the council’s decision to restore the pay, but is disappointed they did not restore it all at once.
“It was taken off me in one lump sum,” she pointed out. “That was $728 a month in income to me and my family.”
Elaine Ginnetti, a Ninth Street resident, told council that she does not believe the cuts should have been restored during the bad economy. Previous council members “were sore losers,” council member Michael Patrick responded. “It was totally wrong and irresponsible.”
“I get that, Mr. Patrick,” Ginnetti said. She said she wasn’t arguing that Stocker and Morell aren’t doing their jobs, but “the economic bottom fell out.”
Ginnetti contended that if they did not like the pay, they should not have run for the offices.
Councilwoman Carol Crytzer said the fact that they did run “tells me they care about this city.”
Other council members said Stocker and Morell have done a good job for the city, with Stocker securing many grants and Morell saving the city money.
The previous council members who voted for the cuts justified them by saying Stocker was inexperienced and Morell was incompetent and disobeyed directives; present council members said those assertions weren’t true.
Stocker had 18 years’ experience on council, and Morell had a balanced budget, they said.
Council member Tony Fire said he doesn’t believe there is another municipality anywhere that took such an action “just because they lost an election.”
Stocker did not address council, but said after the meeting he believes council acted responsibly. “They acted more responsibly than the last group.”
Brian Hallquist, president of Struthers’ International Association of Firefighters Local 1910, said after the meeting he disagrees with Morell’s view that staffing levels in the fire department are fine. He said the department’s call volume has tripled over the past 17 years.
Stocker told The Vindicator he intends to look closely at the issue of filling the empty positions in the police and fire departments. They have gone unfilled since officers moved up after both chiefs retired last year.