Niles council considers more hires as OT costs mount

July 13, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

NILES

This is how difficult things are in this city struggling with fiscal emergency.

The water department, undermanned due to a six-figure deficit, already has incurred $50,000 in overtime costs because of 45 water-main breaks since January from an aging infrastructure, the light department is short-handed, and a police officer is being paid overtime to do a clerical job that should be filled by a part-time secretary.

“That could amount to $25,000,” warned city Auditor Giovanne Merlo to the finance and safety committees, which met Tuesday to discuss possible hires in advance of the next council meeting July 20.

James DePasquale, safety service director, requested four laborers for the water department, describing the situation as “drastic.” If council approves, each laborer would be paid slightly more than $10 per hour.

Currently, the department is down to four men. At one time, according to DePasquale, the department employed 30. Adding to its difficulties is the decaying pipe infrastructure.

“I saw one pipe we repaired downtown and the date on it was 1918,” DePasquale told council.

Merlo projects the water department deficit to be $511,000 by the end of the year if the four are hired, though he indicated that previous rate hikes will continue to help reduce the deficit.

“We were negative $1.1 million at the start of this year, and it’s down to $875,000 by the end of June,” the auditor said.

Niles water consumers could find themselves having to pay service charges banks impose for credit-card utility payments. Merlo said the city has spent $32,000 covering those charges, and council is considering having credit-card users pay them instead.

“It should go to the consumers, not to the city of Niles,” DePasquale said.

Council also is split about several worker recalls. Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia asked council to recall a tax investigator and to act more quickly to bring back a furloughed part-time secretary to do paper work and cut back on police overtime. Linda Marchese, D-3rd, argued for the recall of a full-time custodian first so the city wouldn’t run afoul of its union contract, but Merlo said bringing back all of them is financially impossible, given the general-fund deficit.

“You can’t afford all three,” he said. “You can only take two.”

Council members indicated they would favor bringing back the secretary and inspector. The latter is still working for the city but in a different position.

Fire Chief David Daniels offered a suggestion to increase revenue for his department. He asked council to impose a fire-code fee schedule for alarms, sprinkler systems, re-inspections and fireworks.

“We haven’t been charging anything for this,” Danielson said to the surprise of several council members. “It was our service for paying the city income tax.”

Meanwhile, a poll of council found the majority favor a lump-sum payment of $175,000 from Verizon when it builds a 180-foot cellphone tower on city property. The company has given the city the option of the lump sum or a monthly payment of $1,000 for 25 years. The money would go into the general fund.