FeedsLayoffs, budget cuts are official
Friday was the last day of work for several employees in the City of Wayne.
As the 2005-2006 fiscal year ended, so did the jobs of two police officers as well as several full and part-time employees at the parks and recreation department and at city hall.
“It’s the worst part of my job,” said City Manager John Zech, “the worst part.”
In addition, Wendy Snook, the records clerk at the police department, will be retrained as a clerk in the water department. The records clerk was one of those phased out in the budget due to shortfalls across the city. An empty dispatch position will stay vacant, too. Three part-timers will be laid off from city hall and many positions in the parks department will be transformed from full-time to part time.
The city faced a budget shortfall of about $800,000 this year due to increasing costs and relatively stagnant revue. The costs of providing health care have skyrocketed, according to Zech and the city is paying much more for utilities and other costs than initially forecast.
“We tried to make cuts across the board, take a little from each department so that no one felt it excessively,” said Wayne Mayor Al Haidous.
City officials had also asked the unions to re-open contracts approved last year to discuss some wage concessions. The police unions were asked to put off an already agreed-to wage increase until the start of the 2007-2008 fiscal year. The fire union was asked the same thing and agreed, which eliminated one potential layoff from the department. City department heads agreed to a wage freeze, too.
The city council also agreed to reduce funding for several popular events. The Wayne Wheelfest will see about $20,000 less in funding next year, the Wayne Winterfest has been cut back and the fireworks celebration has been eliminated from the budget.
Ofc. Terry Foley, a member of the executive board for the Wayne chapter of the Police Officers Association of Michigan (POAM), said the union had tried to work with the city last week to come up with some kind of compromise to save the jobs of the two officers—both of whom were hired in January and are near the end of their training—but could not come to an agreement. The union had made significant concessions during each of the last contract negotiations, he said.
Zech said city officials would look at ways to keep down costs during the upcoming fiscal year. An agreement that grew out of the budget process stipulates that the city council will get monthly status reports on the budget in hopes of avoiding difficult, last minute decisions.
“We’re trying to be proactive,” he said.
In the meantime, city officials are also hopeful that meetings with the police and other unions might bear fruit, even at this late hour. Haidous said the budget could always be amended, but said that was unlikely to take place if an agreement hadn’t been reached by July 10.
“I’m holding out hope,” he said.
Foley said the issue has hurt the morale in the department, overall.
“This whole thing is a bad situation,” he said.
Haidous set the cuts were necessary, though. He said city officials have to concentrate on the larger picture, the city as a whole, rather than any one department.
“We can cut a little bit from every department and still move forward,” he said.
