Talks held to avoid layoffs
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Dec. 17, 2008

City government officials and safety forces union leaders will likely be reviewing possible changes and concessions in contract talks in an effort to avoid layoffs of city employees in the city at the end of the year.

During and after a Saturday five-and-a-half hour city council finance committee session, leaders for the city fire and police unions said they would be willing to meet with  negotiators for the city to discuss ways of trying to stop the scheduled layoff of at least 15 city workers on Dec. 31. Mayor Thomas O’Grady said Sunday his administration and negotiators also are willing to discuss the matter. O’Grady has said the city will lay off five firefighters, five police officers and five members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to help combat a projected deficit of nearly $2 million between anticipated city expenses and revenues. In addition, administration officials have said the amount of workers is contingent upon City Council passing a plan to cut the income tax credit from 100 to 50 percent for people who work outside the city. If not the layoffs would rise to between 25 and 30 people, O’Grady said.

In addition to discussing the matters pertaining to the budget and layoffs in council committee and regular sessions, officials said there must be talks about the contracts and city finances in the negotiations between the city and two safety unions to try and avert the layoffs. Although the next talks were not scheduled to take place until January.

But union and administration officials said Tuesday they had set meetings to discuss the contracts. The city and fire union talks were set for next Monday while the meeting between the police and city was tentatively set for Dec. 29.

 “We realize the urgency of the situation and how it pertains to the city,” said David Boatman, president of the firefighters union. “We are willing to do our part and talk about ways of dealing with the problem.”

Boatman reiterated later comments he made during the meeting that union negotiators would be willing to discuss concessions in an effort to try and stop the layoff of city employees.

“We are willing to discuss concessions and changes because our primary concern is trying to avert any layoffs and maintain the same level of city services,” said Boatman. “We will come to the table but we want the administration to be willing to come to the table and be willing to discuss possible changes and be willing to negotiate as well.”

O’Grady, who sought putting the finance meeting on four other days saying he could not break a prior commitment and attend the Saturday meeting, indicated later the city was always willing to talk before the current negotiating session scheduled for January.

“We never left the table and our door is always open to discussion,” O’Grady said. “We are willing to keep talking about this and everything will be on the table but the safety unions must understand that they must be willing to discuss concessions and financial issues in good faith to try and deal with what is a terrible economic situation for not only our city, but the entire country.”

Both during the meeting and afterwards administration officials and Ward 2 Councilman Paul Barker advocated independently of each other discussion of a 5 percent across the board pay cut for city employees as a means of combating the projected deficit. Eliminating longevity pay for city workers was also brought into the discussion.

Bill Saringer, a spokesman for the city police negotiating committee, said Tuesday that his committee will be discussing the situation.

“Our primary concern remains keeping our police officers employed and maintaining a strong level of safety in the city,” Saringer said. “We will be meeting to discuss the contract talks. We are willing to talk but we are concerned and aren’t sure that the city is willing to provide actual figures which would allow us to negotiate and discuss the proposals in a manner which would help us reach an agreement which would stop this. We haven’t seen anything from the administration other than plans to implement layoffs.”

O’Grady said the administration has worked hard to deal with increasingly tighter budgets and that the decision to lay people off was reached reluctantly.

“This administration has reduced personnel expenses through attrition, streamlined city government through more efficient services and continues to present strong services and good budgets,” he said. “We have presented information to council, the unions and others about the situation throughout the year and will continue to do so. I would hope that the unions would negotiate in good faith and not take the talks in a controversial direction.”

Michael Gareau Jr., council’s finance committee chairman, said all the parties involved in city government must continue to try and reach a solution.

“All the parties involved, the administration, workers and city council must continue to keep working to resolve this,” said Gareau later.

Gareau said council will continue to try to work on maintaining the city workforce and services for residents. He said he did not anticipate the proposed reduction in the city income tax credit being passed at last night’s regularly scheduled city council meeting.

“The income tax credit proposal is the last thing council will consider,” Gareau said. “We will try and exhaust all other possibilities before we come to that because that type of increase in people’s taxes is a tough pill to swallow. However, people must understand that we’re not going to be able to magically go through the budget and find enough money to keep all the workers. We must be able to discuss changes in the current budgetary situation. We also know that taking a five percent pay cut for city workers would be hard on the city employees in the current economic climate.”

During the meeting Safety Director Lisa Thomas and Finance Director Carrie Copfer made presentations that can be accessed on the city Web site at www.northolmsted.com. The two directors showed data declining revenues and why the administration arrived at the proposal to lay off 15 workers and cut the income tax credit.

Council President Kevin Kennedy advocated setting up a mayor’s court for the city in an effort to gain additional funds. Ward 3 Councilwoman Nicole Dailey Jones asked questions about possible ways of seeking other sources of income while also trying to ascertain how the city finances became tight. Ward 1 Councilman Dan Ryan, who has been expressing concern about the city budget for several years, said the city must first provide basic services such as safety and dealing with streets and cleanup while Larry Orlowski said eliminating the planning position should be considered.

City firefighters who had distributed flyers throughout city neighborhoods prior to Saturday’s meeting about the situation also indicated they had plans to picket City Hall prior to last night’s council meeting.

Previous West Life articles:

• City sends layoff notices to 15 workers (Dec. 3, 2008)
• O'Grady: More layoffs possible (Dec. 10, 2008)

On the Web:

• North Olmsted City Hall