City sends layoff notices to 15 workers
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Dec. 3, 2008

Administration officials have sent letters to 15 city employees telling them they will be laid off effective midnight Dec. 31.

Mayor Thomas O’Grady said the letters were sent out last Friday to five firefighters, five police officers and five AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) workers in the city.

“This is a heartrending decision we’re having to make,” said O’Grady when contacted about the letters. “These are being done in terrible economic times and essentially because we don’t have any other options that we can use at this point.”

City administration officials have been saying for close to a year that the projected revenue for the city’s 2009 budget was between $1 to $1.5 million short of anticipated expenses.

“It hasn’t gotten any better,” said O’Grady. “Nobody has seen financial conditions like this for decades not just in our city, but all across the country. It’s why we’re having to make these and other tough financial decisions.”

Union officials for the safety forces said the move causes concern.

“This is a tough one,” said Bill Saringer of  the city police union negotiating committee. “We just started talks on the new contract a few days ago.”

Members of the committee released the following statement about the layoffs and said they would be attending the regularly scheduled council meeting last night and that they might have something additional to say at that meeting.

“The FOP/Ohio Labor Council Inc., Negotiating Committee is concerned with this sudden action taken by the mayor. We are committed to working with the North Olmsted city government in averting these damaging layoffs. The safety of the community and the livelihood of our members are our priority. We look forward to quickly resolving the matter and preserving the positions of these officers. It is important to maintain the current staffing level of the safety forces to help ensure the level of  protection expected by the people of  North Olmsted,”  the statement said.

Fire Union President Dave Boatman said the cuts would hurt the city.

“It’s bound to affect services,” Boatman said. “When you take five firefighters and five police officers away from a city as well as five other employees it’s going to hurt safety services for the residents of a city. I would expect this to hurt both programs put on by the department and shift staffing levels for the departments.”

North Olmsted AFSCME union officials could not be reached for comment.

Police Chief Wayne Wozniak said he would decline comment at this point because the union and city are still negotiating and he does not want to do anything which could hamper the talks. Fire Chief Tom Klecan declined comment, expressing similar sentiments.

Boatman said the issues should have been discussed prior to this.

“This is something which should have been discussed well before now,” said Boatman. “This is something which should have been out there and being talked about. I think the administration is at fault for that and I think the fire chief plays a part in this as well, we should have had someone talking to us a long time before this. We understand that these are tough financial times, but as recently as a few weeks ago, this administration was talking about trying to give pay raises to a few city employees, yet now they’re doing this.”

O’Grady said the firefighters are taking the wrong road.

“They shouldn’t be making this into a political issue which is irresponsible,” O’Grady said. “It’s the wrong thing to do at this time. The police union is trying to work this to resolve the issue yet the firefighters are making this into a political situation when jobs are at stake.”

O’Grady, who has been seeking pay raises for several non-union employees for several months before the plan was rejected by council twice, said that should be a non-issue in this discussion.

“That’s irrelevant to this discussion,” he said. “As I told council, those employees deserve the raises to bring them up to the level of the union workers like them. It’s a small amount, it’s fair and shouldn’t be brought into this.”

Michael Gareau Jr., the chairman of city council’s finance committee, declined to say if the layoffs were discussed in two recent executive sessions in which administration and council members were involved.

“I can say this, council will spend all of December looking at each line item in the budget and finding any extra funds we can to try and retain as many city positions as possible,” Gareau said.

O’Grady said the city will continue working on the situation.

“We’ve been a very responsible administration fiscally,” he said. “We have cut other positions through out-sourcing some jobs and having others go through retirement or people leaving. And we will continue to work on this. We are going to have job counselors available to talk with these people and the second we have a job open for them, we will be calling them to come back to work.”

On the Web:

• North Olmsted City Hall