43
3-month pact averts layoffs of Niles safety forces
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
A three-month agreement hammered out between Mayor Ralph Infante and safety forces bargaining representatives has averted layoffs of firefighters and police that could have occurred as early as next month.
The treasurer’s office had warned that funds for paying firefighters would run out this month.
“I believe this agreement will save the city around $200,000,” said Infante whose financially starved city has been under state-declared fiscal emergency since October 2014.
In the memorandum of understanding, the 27 firefighters and 31 police officers will not be paid for working overtime or on holidays for the balance of the year. Instead, they will take compensatory time.
The memorandum, however, does not change the status of contract negotiations, which continue.
“Without these guys doing it, we’d be in a whole world of hurt,” said fire Chief David Danielson.
“Hurt” aptly describes the state of the city’s finances, in particular the general fund, which has declined by $14 million in a nine-year period, said Tim Lintner, the city’s financial supervisor.
“We are still on track to end the year with nothing,” Linter told the commission overseeing the city’s recovery Wednesday. Linter predicted an even bleaker future for 2016.
“Expenditures will exceed revenues by approximately $3 million [and] there will have to be cuts,” Lintner said. “The money will be gone. The city needs a balanced budget now.
The status of Niles’ five-year, 35-point recovery plan and a balanced budget will hinge on next month’s election. The plan’s major component, a 0.25 percent increase in the city’s income tax, is on the Nov. 3 ballot. If approved, the increase would generate $900,000 annually.
“If the tax does not pass, the current recovery plan does not work and will have to be revised,” said Quentin Potter, commission chairman. “I don’t see how there would be enough small parts to cover that [without] extensive cuts.”
“I’m not so sure that some of those folks who are with us now will be here next year,” said Robert Marino, council president and commission member. “This is why we should not be hiring right now.”
Lintner said an investigation by city Auditor Giovanne Merlo revealed that Trumbull County has failed to pay Niles its share of the countywide bed tax “for several years.” Lintner said he is not certain of the amount the county owes the city, but that “restitution will be made.”
As part of its revenue recovery, the city has implemented its own 3-percent bed tax, which it begins collecting this month.