THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2006
Hiring Freeze For City?
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
Park Ridge officials continue to explore how they can save money through personnel actions, even though there is no consensus yet on just how this can be achieved.
The issues of a hiring freeze, salary freeze, and a compensation-related-to- productivity evaluation were on the agenda this week at a meeting of the City Council's Finance and Budget Committee, chaired by Ald. Donald Crampton.
At its June 27 meeting, the committee discussed a hiring freeze at length, but what future direction it will take on that particular subject is uncertain. There was general agreement among committee members this week that they needed more information and data on what other communities are doing, and on what Park Ridge's personnel costs have been for the last three fiscal years. This last piece of information was submitted to the committee this week by the staff.
The city currently has about 218 full-time employees, and it has dozens of part-time employees, which it hires on a seasonal basis or for specified periods. It spends about half of its annual $45 million budget on personnel and benefits, or about $23.2 million annually.
City Manager Tim Schuenke said his staff is currently gathering additional data on compensation and productivity for elected officials to study.
"The committee may refer a hiring freeze and related issues to the council for a committee-of-the-whole meeting," said Ald. Joe Baldi, a member of the Finance and Budget Committee.
Another difficulty the city faces on this subject is that the largest chunk of its full-time personnel costs are in the public works, police and fire departments, where compensation levels and the number of full-time positions are specified in long-term contracts with unions.
"We have to deal with unions in one way, and with other non-union employees in another way, regarding salary and hiring matters," said Schuenke.