Council acted prudently in rejecting police perks

Youngstown City Council merits commendation for its fiscally responsible move this week to reject a fact-finder’s report that would have broken the city’s bank.

Council, in a 6-1 vote Wednesday with Councilwoman Lauren McNally, D-5th Ward, dissenting, rejected proposed language for a new police contract that would have exacerbated the city’s already dismal and precarious finances.

As we have editorialized numerous times in the recent past, the city of Youngstown’s financial health has been flat at best, downright anemic at worst. Financial projections show that without dramatic structural increases to city revenue or decreases in city expenditures, Youngstown could be staring a $16 million operating deficit in the face within five years.

And as we have pointed out ad nauseam in this space, Youngstown continues to face facing major challenges that wield direct impact on its finances. The population is declining and getting older; the tax base is stagnant; many neighborhoods are deteriorating; the number of dilapidated homes that need to be demolished remains high; and the loss of some major employers does not bode well for the community’s economic future.

Consider, for example, the city is projected to lose about $780,000 in income-tax revenue yearly from last fall’s closing of North Side Regional Medical Center, one of the city’s largest employers. Add to that loss an additional conservatively estimated hit of $115,000 from this spring’s idling of the General Motors Lordstown Assembly Complex, and it becomes painfully clear that Youngstown leaders must avoid increasing their fixed expenditures – at all costs and in every nook and cranny possible.

That’s why we believe council acted appropriately and prudently this week in rejecting proposed contract language that would have burdened the city with a minimum of $435,000 in additional costs by the end of next year.

WITHOUT CONTRACT FIVE MONTHS

The two police unions – the Youngs-town Patrol Association and the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association – have been working without a formal contract since Dec. 1, 2018.

Police had sought annual wage increases of 2.5 percent in each year of a proposed three-year contract through 2021. The fact finder reduced the levels of those raises to 11/4 percent retroactive to 2018, 1 percent in 2019 and 1 percent in 2020. The report also included elimination of three of the 12 yearly steps that patrol officers must attain before reaching their maximum pay grade of about $56,000. If accepted, they would reach the top of the wage scale three years sooner.

Therein lies the rub and the unacceptably steep spike for city taxpayers.

Other aspects of the fact-finder’s proposed settlement are also troubling in their abject disregard for the ongoing financial crisis in the city, a city that could be teetering on the brink of state-declared fiscal emergency. Among them:

Vacation pay. The fact finder agreed with union members in rejecting elimination of a sixth paid week of vacation for veteran officers. The city, however, rightly argues that Youngstown’s weakened financial status makes the one-week loss a reasonable adjustment, and that with vacation days, holidays and personal days, city police already enjoy substantial time off.

Quarterly bonuses: The police proposed increasing a quarterly incentive of $159 for those not using any sick time over those 90 days more than three-fold to $500. The city proposed reducing the bonuses altogether; the fact-finder settled on the status quo.

Uniform allowance: The fact-finder rejected the city’s recommendation to reduce uniform allowance from $1,084 annually to $500 annually.

To some casual observers, the belt-tightening the city seeks on some of these fringe benefits may appear to be a tad persnickety given they are aimed at some of the city’s hardest workers who put their lives on the line every time they don their police uniform.

To be sure, if the city were not about to be sucked into a budgetary black hole, many of the fact finder’s recommendations would merit more serious consideration.

But given the dreary financial forecast for the city’s foreseeable future, Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and City Council no longer can put off the inevitable: slashing payroll costs that eat up 70 percent of the general fund.

This week’s rejection of the unwieldy police-contract language represents one solid step in that direction.