Article published January 31, 2009
Toledo fire, police layoffs possible
Cuts in officers not planned, but aide notes need to erase $8.1M deficit
By IGNAZIO MESSINA
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The Finkbeiner administration doesn't intend to lay off police officers and firefighters to fix the city's budget crisis, but the possibility is not completely out of the question.
Toledo City Council was told Thursday it must erase an $8.1 million deficit to close out 2008 - a shortfall many thought would be much smaller because council last month had redirected $8 million of unspent capital improvement money to help plug the hole.
Robert Reinbolt, chief of staff to Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, said officials "are exploring a variety of options to balance the budget."
"At this point today, there is not any number of police officers or fire officers to be laid off," Mr. Reinbolt said. "Now, I would be lying to you if I said those options are not being looked at."
He said the city's $6.4 million rainy-day fund would be applied to the 2008 deficit. Because $2 million of that was earmarked for the 2009 general-fund budget, the 2009 plan would need to be revised with more cuts, inflated revenue assumptions, or anticipated savings.
But even using the entire rainy-day fund would leave the city's 2008 budget $1.7 million in the red."We have the big [weeklong] layoff planed for Feb. 16, for which we put out 1,000 notices and if police and fire would be included in that, it certainly would not be any street officers," Mr. Reinbolt said.
Toledo Councilman Joe McNamara said it was deplorable that the mayor had kept council out of the loop. "I am utterly shocked the deficit is as bad as it is because this is something the administration should have told council as soon as they knew," he said. "It's a real crisis and … council should not have heard about it for the first time at a public meeting, and it would have perhaps affected some of the decisions made in the 2009 budget."
The 2009 city budget, approved earlier this month 7-5 by council, does not include money to hire police cadets or firefighters. It calls for layoffs, mandated unpaid time off for city employees, closing all but one public pool, a reduction of funds for the city's criminal justice program and Toledo Municipal Court, and wage freezes for city workers.
Mr. McNamara added, "It was unconscionable for the administration to allow council to pass the 2009 budget if they knew the 2008 deficit was so high."
Mr. Reinbolt said the dire situation should not have been a surprise. "If they have been paying attention during finance committee meetings, I think these things have been discussed," he said. "What you have is the revenue just dropping off tremendously."
Income-tax collections have plummeted because of increasing unemployment. The city's jobless rate in December was 10.7 percent - the highest among all metro areas in Ohio.
Getting concessions from the city's police and fire unions would go a long toward fixing the budget problem, Mr. Reinbolt said. "If the unions step forward as Local 7 did, that reduces the amount of money, the number of layoffs, and that's what we are asking the unions to do," he added.
Employees in the 800-member American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 7 - the largest city of Toledo union - narrowly voted last week to accept a new three-year contract that freezes salaries for the first two years while raising co-pay costs for health care, among other concessions.
The Finkbeiner administration is negotiating new contracts with the Toledo Police Patrolman's Association, the police command officers' union, and Toledo Firefighters Local 92.
Dan Wagner, president of the Toledo Police Patrolman's Association, said police layoffs are a possibility.
"When you start laying off police officers, it is by seniority and you have to pull other officers off the nonfield operations to be on the streets, and that lessens the services to the citizens," Mr. Wagner said.
Negotiations between the city and the patrolman's union turned contentious Jan. 9 when the union filed an unfair-labor-practice charge against the city for comments made by Mayor Finkbeiner regarding their negotiations.
Mayor Finkbeiner in a previous statement promised to file an unfair-labor-practice charge against the union because he said some of its members "blatantly interfered" with a contract vote by members of another city union - AFSCME.
In his statement, Mr. Finkbeiner said, "Toledo Police Patrolman's Association negotiators [Wednesday] asked for a contract calling for a double-digit increase in pay over three years. That pay raise would virtually force the layoff of all Local 7 and [Local] 2058 employees, if it were granted."
Mr. Wagner said both sides had set rules to keep the details of negotiations secret.
Neither side would reveal the precise salary increase request. The patrolman's union has been in talks with the city since its contract expired Dec. 31.
Contact Ignazio Messina at:
imessina@theblade.com
or 419-724-6171.
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