Mayor defends secrecy of proposed layoffs; employees, public being surveyed

When the Peachtree City Council postponed acting on a recommendation to sack 23 landscape and maintenance employees Thursday night, it did so in the face of public criticism.

One complaint, aired by employees and citizens alike, was the surprise element of the proposal. Mayor Harold Logsdon said the matter has been discussed vigorously by city staff for weeks and options have included across-the-board pay cuts.

“Staff, Bernie and Council have been talking about this for some weeks,” Logsdon said. “We recognized the problems in the budget for several weeks now and there has been a lot of discussion, albeit not public, because this is a very sensitive subject and you don’t want to go public with this if there is a possibility for another way.”

Logsdon also said officials “didn’t want to ruin anybody’s Christmas.”

“But I trust that staff has done their due diligence on this one and to have more public hearings or more public hearing than we have tonight, I’m not sure is going to serve anybody well other than increase the anxiety of the whole thing,” Logsdon said. “... I’m not for prolonging this.”

During the 30-day postponement, city employees are being surveyed to see if they will support taking a volunteer 25 percent pay cut. Those surveys are to be anonymous so no employee will face retribution for their decision.

Once the motion was passed there was a collective sigh from the audience, which included quite a few of the city’s 260-plus employees.

City Manager Bernie McMullen said the city’s projected budget deficit for the 2009-2010 fiscal year now stands at $3.5 million as city officials decided to remove any projected gains from increases in the tax digest.

Also the city’s latest month of sales tax collections fell short by 8.5 percent, a trend that if it continues could cost the city “somewhere in the neighborhood of a half-million dollars,” McMullen said.

Councilman Steve Boone implored the public to shop locally instead of in Coweta County, other nearby areas or online, all of which divert sales tax revenue away from the city.

Another factor hurting the city is the $614,000 in the budget listed as savings due to predicted vacancies. Those vacancies aren’t occurring as planned, which “makes addressing the problem that much harder,” McMullen said.

Eliminating the 23 jobs and outsourcing the work would amount to a projected $840,000 in savings, McMullen said. He noted that the employees who would be terminated “do a lot of things ... other than what their basic title is,” and the directors of leisure services and public works have been asked “to do the best job they can in terms of making sure everything is covered.”

Resident Juan Matute said citizens should be told exactly what services are going to be cut. Among them, he imagined, is roadkill removal.

“It’s kind of neat you see a dead deer on the road, you come back an hour later and it’s gone,” Matute said. “... We need to know as citizens, through the council, what citizens are going to see and not see.”

One of those duties is tree removal and inspection, McMullen said.

The landscaping contract will include the ability to have emergency tree removal, McMullen said. The city will also need another contract for pest control services, he added.

The public works and recreation staffers proposed to be cut also handle interior painting, McMullen said. By letting them go, the city can elect to hire contractors to handle the painting ... or it can skip the painting if money is tight, McMullen explained.

City staff is contemplating further service cuts beyond the work that will be outsourced, McMullen said.

Among those changes would be a reduction in frequency of grass cutting, McMullen said. Also the city will no longer landscape the entrances to subdivisions, although homeowners associations would be allowed to do so if they choose, McMullen said.

McMullen has proposed paying the 23 employees six weeks’ severance pay and keeping their medical insurance intact for that same period. A provision in the landscaping contract the city enters with a company would also require that company to consider hiring any of the released employees.

Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett noted the job cuts only address $840,000 of the projected $3.5 million shortfall, “and that’s if things don’t get any worse.”

Councilman Doug Sturbaum said if the city didn’t take action now it could end up with substantially reduced services “and that’s the last place we want to be.”

Boone said it is “gut-wrenching to sit up here and have to make these types of decisions.”

Though Mayor Logsdon dismissed the notion of raising taxes this year, several other council members said that has to be considered part of the equation.

Staving off the job cuts, combined with the other budgetary woes, would require close to a two-mill increase, McMullen said.

That would mean a $200 a year increase for city property owners. Council members seemed to agree such a drastic action is not doable.

“In this economy that is a real burden on the taxpayer,” Boone said.

Illustrating the political difficulty of raising taxes was the collective groan of the crowd when it was said that a one-mill tax increase would cost $100 per home.

Plus, a property tax raise wouldn’t be collected until December, which is already well into the city’s fiscal year, McMullen said.

Other budget-saving options considered by staff have included across the board pay cuts for all departments. Such a 5 percent cut would save $667,000 a year, officials said.

Another salary-related item on the chopping block is the anticipated cost of living raises for next year, tabbed at roughly $700,000.

The city has also tabulated savings on furloughs for all employees except those in the fire and police department. A one day a month furlough would result in $280,000 in savings and a 4.62 percent pay cut for affected employees. Having one furlough per pay period would result in $607,000 savings and a 10 percent pay cut.

Making the furloughs one day a week will net a 20 percent pay cut and save $1.2 million.

Former city clerk Frances Meaders said she hoped to see more of a mix of solutions instead of cutting the 23 positions. She said she’d rather see a property tax increase, salary cuts, furloughs and other options as part of a solution.

“Something that’s unique, and not just in one fail swoop to say 23 people are gone to cut the budget,” Meaders said.

Resident George Martin agreed, saying that although the decisions are tough, the city needed to “go back to the drawing board” and take time to provide for other input.

“We need to look at every budget, every director’s arena and not just take the wholesale approach. ... There are managers here I think who are still willing to go back and look at the personnel budget, the infrastructure budget.”

Meaders noted that many of the employees the city is proposing to let go have worked here a long time and dedicated themselves to the city’s well-being.

One resident said the youth sports association presidents would be glad to work with the city to help take over paying for maintenance issues and the like.

“We’re going to need those people to step up to the plate,” Logsdon replied.

In reference to a wisecrack from the audience about cutting the mayor’s salary, Logsdon said that is a possibility that will be looked at also.

“And that will be looked at, I promise you that will be looked at,” Logsdon said.

Before voting unanimously to postpone a vote on the 23 job cuts, council adjourned into executive (closed) session to discuss the issue as a personnel matter. Georgia law allows local governments to meet in closed session to deliberate upon the firing of employees among other personnel-related matters so long as any vote on such matters is recorded in open session.

The executive session was hastily called after discussion on the issue ended and Logsdon said he would entertain a motion from council. No motions were forthcoming until Sturbaum suggested the executive session.

It wasn’t until after that executive session that the city released figures documenting various pay cut and furlough proposals that were tabulated by city staff. A chart outlining them was published on a large screen for public viewing.

“So you see, there’s no easy answer,” Logsdon said after the numbers were broken down by McMullen.

Council’s immediate answer was to postpone the vote for a month so city employees could be surveyed and also so the city could get feedback from residents. A survey on a similar issue, which was planned long before the budget crunch hit the city last month, is being published in the city’s UPDATE newsletter and is also available online at www.peachtree-city.org.