43
Niles mayor to present revised plan to state
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia told a jammed city council chambers he has completed work on a revised financial-recovery plan and will present it to the city’s state-appointed financial supervisors today.
“We’re finally getting there,” Scarnecchia said during Wednesday’s council meeting. “It’s a good plan.”
Niles has been in fiscal emergency since October 2014 and is required to develop and comply with a recovery plan. Scarnecchia’s predecessor, Ralph Infante, put together the current plan, but the mayor opposes several provisions in it, including permanent layoffs of police dispatchers and eliminating the city’s income-tax department.
With Niles’ general fund in the red, Scarnecchia had earlier proposed using enterprise funds from the water, sewer and light departments to keep the dispatchers. The mayor declined to comment when asked if his suggestion appears in the new plan.
“I don’t want to say anything about it before I meet with the auditors, but I will tell you I’m proposing new ideas that will affect the general fund,” the mayor told The Vindicator.
If the financial supervisors approve, the plan will have to be submitted to council for a vote and then to the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission, which oversees the city’s compliance with the plan. The mayor would not speculate on what will happen should the supervisors reject his plan.
Last week, Ohio Auditor Dave Yost sharply criticized the mayor for failing to comply with state law by not following the current plan until it can be changed.
Wednesday’s meeting played out before more than 65 people who packed council chambers. Lines of spectators stood along the walls and spilled out to an adjoining hallway.
For nearly 40 minutes, audience members – city employees and private citizens – voiced anger over the financial situation in general and the recent Scarnecchia-ordered layoffs, including three firefighters and three police officers in particular.
Acting police Chief Jaisan Holland said the latest layoffs make a bad situation worse. “This reduction is unprecedented and puts our officers’ safety further in question,” Holland told council.
Among the cuts Holland announced are reductions in the detective division, suspension of narcotics and drug-house investigations, and reduction from four to three officers on the day and midnight shifts.
“It’s the reality we have with this budget,” Holland said, adding the police budget has been reduced by 22 percent in the last five years.
Andrew Bickerstaff, a five-year fire department veteran who is among those laid off, said there would be no one to fulfill his role as fire inspector or his other responsibilities, especially handling emergencies.
“When there were 70 overdoses in this city, I was that guy,” said Bickerstaff, reciting a litany of the work he had been doing for the fire department before his furlough.
Scarnecchia called the layoffs “agonizing decisions,” but said he had little choice.
“We have to come up with $1 million [in the general fund],” the mayor said in response to Bickerstaff. “If not, the state will take over, and I don’t want [that].”
The mayor, council members and several in the audience called for public support of the 0.5 percent income-tax increase that will appear on the March 15 ballot. Revenue from the tax hike is estimated at $2 million annually and would be used solely to maintain the safety forces if voters approve the measure.
The mayor has previously stated if the tax-hike fails, widespread layoffs and greatly reduced city services are inevitable.