O'Grady: More layoffs possible
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Dec. 10, 2008

Mayor Thomas O’Grady said there could be more layoffs of city workers than the 15 already scheduled unless City Council passes the administration’s temporary reduction in the income tax credit for residents who work outside the city from 100 to 50 percent.

“Our projections are based on that being approved and being part of the budget,” said O’Grady. “We came up with the figure of 15 with the premise that we would have the temporary change in the income tax credit. If we don’t get that I would anticipate there being 25 to 30 people being laid off instead of the 15. I’ll be presenting that proposal to city council this week.”

City officials mailed notices in late November to five police officers, five firefighters and five members of the American Federation of State and Municipal employees saying they would be laid off effective midnight Dec. 31. O’Grady and administration officials have cited the tough economic times and the city having a projected deficit of $1.5 million or more between city expenses and anticipated revenue for the 2009 budget.

“These are totally unprecedented times,” said O’Grady. “We haven’t seen financial conditions like this in decades. We are having to make some very tough decisions. So, I’m making the decision and presenting this administration’s plan to City Council.”

O’Grady said his plan is not a permanent reduction in the tax credit. It would not take effect for a year.

“It has a definite sunset clause to it,” said O’Grady. “This is not something we want to do permanently to residents. The legislation will have a clause which stops it after a maximum of four years.”

O’Grady said if the city can put the 100 percent credit back in place sooner it will.

“If economic conditions show us that we can put it back before the end of four years, then we will do so,” he said. “Right now, we’re planning based on tough economic times. I wanted something put into place which does not harm those unable to pay for it, like the senior citizens or those on fixed incomes.’

Administration officials estimate the city will bring in an additional $760,000 to the general fund and $160,000 each to the permanent improvement street and storm fund and the solid waste and recycling fund. The second year projections are $2.7 million for the general fund and $588,000 for the two aforementioned funds.

As an example finance officials said if a resident works in Cleveland and makes $50,000 annually, they currently pay Cleveland $1,000 for its two percent withholding tax and North Olmsted gets no dollars, with all the taxes going to Cleveland. In the 50 percent plan proposed by O’Grady, North Olmsted would accept $500 of the money paid to Cleveland as withholding towards North Olmsted and then it would have to pay another $500 directly to North Olmsted.

City Council has set a special meeting for 9:30 a.m. this Saturday at City Hall to discuss the budget situation. Council Finance Committee Chairman Michael Gareau Jr. said he anticipates a long meeting.

“We’ll be there awhile because we are going to go over every line item in that budget and cut out any unnecessary expenses,” Gareau said. “We are going to do everything in our power to preserve city jobs and services.”

Gareau said he still wishes the mayor had presented more information sooner to council.

“It’s December and we’ve been asking for information about the financial situation all year,” he said. “We have a budget they’ve given to us but it still doesn’t have the figures or revenue projections we need to work with on this.”

Gareau said council will work hard to avoid the current projected layoffs or any additional ones.

“We’re going to examine everything in the budget, the mayor’s proposal anything which will affect the city services for residents,” he said. “Council has to consider the proposal and all it entails.”

Gareau also said he wants the council and city employees to work together.

“We will be reaching out to the city employees and their representatives and would hope that we can work together to do everything we can to preserve city jobs and services,” Gareau said.

Bill Saringer, a spokesman for the city police negotiating committee who also spoke at the Dec. 2 City Council meeting, said at that meeting the mayor’s decision to cut five full time officers from the city will cause problems.

“When the department is already down two officers, has another retiring soon and another soon to be deployed to Iraq, it simply put is a serious public safety issues for residents,” Saringer said.

He noted that laying off the officers would result in a reduction of shifts manpower which would result in longer response times.

“Response times will suffer when an officer is working the road and gets that hot 911 call and all other units are tied up on calls,”  “In that situation we will have to rely on a neighboring jurisdiction to provide assistance from much farther away, inevitably taking much longer to respond.”

Dan Coyle, a member of the firefighters union executive board, said service and training for that department will suffer as well. Coyle, who is a paramedic for Westshore SWAT teams, said that those units could suffer as well because of the cutbacks.

 Saringer said later the police are committed to trying to work with the city.

“Our goal is to preserve those jobs and services,” he said. “We have concerns that the mayor is not fully communicating all the information to us to properly discuss what we can do to work on these issues,” Saringer said.

Dave Boatman, head of the firefighters union, said his group also aims to try and preserve jobs.

“We are trying to work with the city,” Boatman said. “But, we have concerns when we hear that there could be additional layoffs unless we do things a specific way. We would like to try and work together to find the best ways to try and avoid cuts in workers and services.”

O’Grady said the administration is working on the best solutions in a bad situation.

“We do not have good choices in this,” he said. “We’re making the best decisions we can in terrible times.”

Previous West Life articles:

• City sends layoff notices to 15 workers (Dec. 3, 2008)

On the Web:

• North Olmsted City Hall