Story posted Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Staff Must Take Time Off To Save Money
By RICHARD MAYER Assistant Managing Editor
The City of Prospect Hts. is facing a $250,000 deficit and has serious financial issues, according to City Administrator Pam Arrigoni. Effective July 1, non-paid furloughs, or leave of absence time mandated to all 47 city employees, will be 24 hours per employee per month for 10 months.
Every staff member at city hall, public works and the police department are affected by this decision.
According to Arrigoni, department heads are working on scheduling and as soon as schedules have been determined employees will be notified of forced time off.
Due to the lack of economic recovery since the final quarter of 2008, and the continuous shortage of revenues as estimated for fiscal year 2010, the city is being forced to make necessary adjustments to its budget.
Because salary and benefits constitute over 72% of the budget, excluding overtime, and drastic cuts in all areas (training, equipment, supplies, etc) were made during the budget process, city officials were forced to turn to the largest cost they have: salaries and benefits.
According to City Treasurer Richard Tibbits, the "hope" is that it won't affect residents "too badly or not at all."
"We need to have enough bodies to provide coverage for the city's core of services. If it's done the right way, it may not necessarily impact the general population," Tibbits said.
"There's not much option to increasing revenue at this time," he added."Cutting expenses is the only way to go to balance the budget."
"It is the intention of the city to preserve jobs but in this volatile economic time, it is impossible to make guarantees," said Arrigoni in a letter to staff. "We are all in this together and no one is spared from this action."
There are also concerns that residents may not get the same service from the police department they are used to.
"We will have to reevaluate our scheduling, minimize manpower and will become more of a reactive police department instead of proactive," said Cmdr. Eric Lundt, whose title used to be deputy chief, but because of financial constraints was demoted.
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