It’s raises versus layoffs again for city workers. So far, most
signs point to layoffs, and even the thin police department could
see a reduction in force.
It’s raises versus layoffs again for city workers. So far, most signs point to layoffs, and even the thin police department could see a reduction in force.
March renegotiations with the city’s three labor unions saved the city $400,000. At the time, the move was heralded as a testament to the good relations between the city and its workers. But the economy tanked further, and the city is again approaching the unions, this time to no avail.
The city budget is again out of whack to the tune of $775,000 per year, Finance Manager Kevin Riper said.
The Morgan Hill City Council will meet from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today in the Madrone Room at the Community and Cultural Center to discuss “service level priorities.” Managers prepared flow charts for each department detailing what city services are fundamental, which support fundamental services, and which are discretionary.
Yet the three labor groups will see increases over the next five years that, by 2014, will add $1.23 million to the city’s expenses, according to Human Resources Director Brian Stott.
If the groups let go of raises for the 2010/11 fiscal year alone, that would mean $550,000 in savings.
“We’d be more than halfway there,” Stott said. “We can afford the current staffing – if we continue to pay them what we pay today. We can’t afford the raises.”
But this isn’t music to the ears of labor groups that have seen staff shrink by 16 positions, including one layoff – the rest were vacant positions eliminated – over the past two years as the Morgan Hill City Council grappled with ever-dropping revenues from declines in sales tax and other revenues as big retailers closed shop and the city lost one of its two new car dealerships. The workers stepped up to the plate in March, and are hesitant to crack open their contracts again.
At the time contracts were renegotiated, city leaders felt they had forecast conservatively and asked for all they needed from workers, Stott said. The city renegotiated extended contracts that stretched raises out over the course of five years instead of three and saved the city $400,000 but left intact a slew of raises that, all told, will add $1.23 million cost to the general fund annually, Stott said.
Meanwhile, the city is staring in the face of another hole totaling $775,000 annually in the $28 million general fund, due to continued sales and hotel tax revenue declines.
More than half the $28 million general fund – 55 percent, or $15 million – goes toward salary and benefits for its employees. And more than half of that amount, $9 million, goes to police salary and benefits.
Community Service Officers Association President Donna MacKnight said the city reached out to her group in August, but she’s heard nothing since.
“At that time we said that we weren’t ready to renegotiate the contract at that moment because we had just barely renegotiated it,” MacKnight said. The association represents 17 workers comprised of dispatchers, records personnel and the animal control, multi-service and community service officers.
MacKnight added, “We’re always willing to talk about it.” She said the association’s message to the city in August was “We want to work with you, but we’re not ready to do that again.”
Police Officers Association President Scott Silva sounded surprised when asked whether his department, members of which will receive a contracted 4 percent salary increase in April followed by four more increases over the next three years, would choose taking layoffs over giving up raises. Morgan Hill Police have one of the lowest ratios of officers to residents in Santa Clara County, at .95 officers per 1,000 residents.
“I haven’t heard any of that talk,” he said. “We just think we’re so shorthanded anyway.”
But council members, who have preserved the existing force in the past due to its already small size and last November tried to pass a utility tax to pay for more officers, aren’t making any promises. Earlier this year, the council approved shrinking the force by eliminating two vacant officer positions.
“We haven’t said that any one department, including the police department, is immune or has immunity from the repercussions of the budget,” Councilman Larry Carr said. Carr noted that even with diminishing revenue sources, the unions are looking forward to scheduled salary increases.
Meanwhile, city managers, who are not organized into a labor group, haven’t taken a raise in two years, for a savings of $240,000.
The three labor groups received a 2 percent salary boost in September that will cost $236,000 annually and the city has been unsuccessful in asking for that back.
Silva said, though, that his department was trying to stay competitive for new recruits and officers are skeptical of the council’s recent spending decisions.
The city has been successful at recruiting “lateral” officers from places like Campbell because of the pay and benefits, he said. Also, Silva pointed to the “wasted opportunity” in the impound yard, which was projected to bring in enough revenue to pay for a corporal, a cadet and a multi-service officer to the department.
On the council’s table was operation of its own tow yard that would bring in added revenue to the police department. But tow truck companies decried the move, and the city instead worked out a compromise with them.
With skeptical union groups, layoffs may be the only way to go, the council said.
“Unless the unions are willing to talk I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” Councilwoman Marby Lee said. “We have a contract. Should we break the contract? Unless they’re willing to come to the table … That’s something they have to consider. They haven’t been willing to do that. That’s certainly a thought in my mind.”
When asked if the council could avoid layoffs this go round, Mayor Steve Tate said, “I hate the answer, but I think the answer is no I don’t think they can be avoided. I would love to think so. We have tried to negotiate a change in the contract but have not been successful.”
And, according to the city’s sustainable budget policy, layoffs mean lost jobs, not furloughs.
“Our whole approach is … not an across-the-board thing,” he said. But, “It would not surprise me if the furlough suggestion came up again.”
Representatives for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 101 could not be reached for comment Thursday.
