Friday, May 20, 2016
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority commissioners approved a resolution authorizing reassignment of authority staff functions after a retirement-bonus incentive, under which 17 authority employees left late last year.
No layoffs are planned under the reassignment and reclassification approved Thursday, but the reorganization does add duties of retirees, who were not replaced, to the functions of the authority’s 63 employees, explained Carmelita Douglas, YMHA executive director.
Last August, in a cost-saving move linked to federal funding cuts, the authority’s commissioners authorized a one-time, $10,000 retirement bonus for employees who left by the end of 2015.
Retiring employees also got $40 in longevity compensation for each year of service up to a maximum of $1,200.
That retirement incentive has resulted in salary cost savings of about $40,000 per month, said Gary Cameron, the authority’s finance director.
Douglas estimated last year the incentive would save the authority an average of $60,000 per year per retiree.
One example of a job reassignment is the distribution of retiree Marsha Henry’s functions as resident assistance initiatives coordinator among several current employees, Douglas said.
The board also heard about two building improvement projects.
The roof-replacement project to be performed by Boak & Sons Inc. of Austintown at the authority’s Norton Manor high-rise, 1400 Springdale Ave. on the East Side, is scheduled to begin June 20, Walter Krygowski, project manager, told the commissioners.
Exterior renovations at the authority’s P.L. Strait Homes in Brier Hill neighborhood by the A. Morgan Building Group of Akron are scheduled to begin May 31 and include new roofs, windows, doors and siding at 36 single-family homes and four four-plex buildings, he added.
“The face-lift associated with these buildings will really improve the current vista of them,” he said.