Comic relief in Niles?

Things are so bad in the city of Niles that if residents don’t laugh, they’ll cry.

So, to lighten the load of government’s fiscal crisis, there’s a picture at the end of this column (adjacent page) that pays homage to Niles City Council.

The inspiration for publishing the picture was last week’s meeting of council that triggered this reaction from President Robert Marino:

“We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Shouting and hollering doesn’t solve anything.”

The unruly behavior may not solve anything, but it’s sure good for a belly laugh.

In fact, Niles Acting Police Chief Jay Holland emerged as the buzz kill of the evening because he blocked Safety Director James DePasquale from going after a resident – George Kuriatnyk – with his fists. Kuriatnyk had called DePasquale “a liar.”

Had the confrontation evolved into a barroom brawl, Niles would today be king of YouTube. Internet trolls love old-time beat-downs. Indeed, there was a video version of the picture on the next page that went viral.

But even without the physical altercation, there were enough fireworks during Wednesday’s council meeting to give reporters goose bumps.

“That guy is an idiot,” DePasquale said of Kuriatnyk. “He needs to go.” The resident did leave the meeting.

But the stage had been set for other verbal jabs.

Leaders of public employee unions lambasted members of council for not transferring employees out of the general fund, which is imploding, to jobs covered by the city’s enterprise funds. The light department, for example, maintains such a fund with the revenue it generates.

And the union leaders weren’t in any mood to listen to reason.

Not-so-veiled threat

When Council President Marino explained that state fiscal supervisors who have control of the city’s finances had not approved the transfer of the employees, the union chiefs responded with a not-so-veiled threat.

“We’ve got a list of people who should go,” said Pete Mollica, a union officeholder, referring to individuals in Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia’s administration and department heads.

Council members weren’t happy about having a gun to their heads.

“Bad mouthing us with a list of people you want to get rid of is not the right answer,” said Councilman Ryan McNaughton, D-at large.

His colleague, Michael Lastic, D-at large, likened the threats to being back in school.

But what’s taking place in Niles City Hall isn’t high school hijinks. Niles government has been under state-mandated fiscal emergency since fall 2014, which has resulted in a fiscal oversight commission taking control of the city’s finances.

Fiscal emergency is declared by the state auditor when a public entity’s operating budget cannot be balanced because expenditures far outweigh revenues.

Commission members and officials from the state auditor’s office have been vocal in their criticism of the way Mayor Scarnecchia has been dealing with the city’s fiscal crisis since he took office in January.

Scarnecchia has tried to use a light touch when an iron fist is demanded.

Here’s the reality facing the city: The general fund budget has a $130,000 deficit, and there’s no source of revenue to make up the shortfall; city employees receive full health-care coverage without paying a dime toward the premiums; revenue from the income-tax increase voters approved in March for safety forces won’t be coming in until 2017; a state criminal investigation is targeting the administration of former Mayor Ralph Infante; and state officials have pointed out repeatedly that the budget cannot be brought under control until steps are taken to reduce employee costs.

The fact that public employees have had a free ride as far as health-insurance premiums are concerned is a point of contention for private-sector workers who have been forced to pay their fair share of premiums for many years.

Thus, the announcement last week by the mayor that he has ordered all department heads, court employees and nonunion workers to begin paying a portion of the premiums is a major development worthy of public support.

Scarnecchia also announced that he will be seeking the same concessions from the four unions when contract negotiations occur later this year.

But that’s just one aspect of the general fund budget needing to be addressed.

It has been shown that about 80 percent of the operating budget is eaten up by employee wages and benefits, which is why a reduction in the payroll must be on the table.

Mayoral pay cut

Mayor Scarnecchia has laid off a few employees, but it isn’t enough. He recently said that he would take a pay cut in order to reduce the general fund deficit by $34,000, and wants other city employees to follow his lead. He also believes council members should agree to cuts in their salaries.

But if the mayor’s goal is to include all city employees in the sacrifice that needs to be made, then the unions must also agree to across-the-board cuts.

It is revealing that during last Wednesday’s brouhaha in city council, union official Mollica told lawmakers they weren’t doing enough to save jobs. The problem with such thinking is that it’s unrealistic in today’s economy. During the Great Recession that began in 2008, the private sector shed thousands of jobs, which caused a major upheaval in the economy. Locally, governments have had to deal with a decrease in tax revenue and cuts in funding from the state.

The public sector has shied away from making tough decisions about payrolls because there’s a belief that workers have a right to hold on to the jobs until their lucrative public pensions kick in.

Labor experts contend that the average private- sector worker will have at least 10 different employers.

There are no guarantees in today’s workplace – at least not on Main Street.