on 02-13-2009 02:47

Positions eliminated as way to help close $5M city deficit

By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET - The impact of the city's budget deficit hit home for 17 municipal employees who lost their jobs effective today.

A total of 17 employees, 14 of them full-time and three who were part-time, were let go by the city as part of a cost-cutting effort to address a projected $5 million deficit in city operations. Faced with the loss of state aid in the governor's proposed budget plan that will affect both government operations and the schools, Mayor James Doyle has predicted that the city could be looking at a total deficit of around $10.1 million.
Doyle has also testified in front of the House Finance Committee that if the General Assembly approves the governor's proposed elimination of state aid, the city will not be able to pay the first installment of a bond note that is due on April 15 and the city will be bankrupt.
Doyle said he feels badly about the layoffs, but said they are necessary in order for the city to become "leaner and meaner" in the current economic times. He said he can't predict right now if this is the end of the job losses, or if other cost-cutting measures such as furloughs or shortened work weeks will have to be implemented. "When we find out more about state aid, or concessions from the unions ... this is all to be determined. We're watching what happens day by day," said Doyle.
As to the layoffs, Doyle said that most are based on seniority, except in a few cases where a less-senior person was bypassed because their position is paid for by grant money, which doesn't affect the budget.
The 14 full-time employees who were laid off include 10 Parks and Recreation attendants, a sewer and refuse laborer, a traffic lane painter, an irrigation and fertilizer superintendent, and an office clerk in the engineering department. The three part-time job losses include a library page, a grants management assistant, and a junior municipal elections clerk.
According to Angel Garcia, the city's personnel director, the latest round of cuts signifies the third phase of job reductions that have been instituted in the current fiscal year. During phase one, which took place on June 27 of 2008, there were 13 lay-offs, and in phase two, which occurred on Aug. 15, 2008, 11 jobs were eliminated.
Neither Garcia nor the mayor said they could provide a firm figure on Thursday as to what the total savings of salaries and benefits for the 17 latest job cuts will represent.
All of the layoffs involve employees who were members of Council 94, Local 1012.
Union President Augie Venice called the job cuts "unfortunate" and said the membership questions how much financial gain is being made by the action in light of such a staggering budget shortfall. He pointed to the mayor's previous remarks that even if the city laid off an additional 10 percent of its workforce and adopted a 3-day work week, it wouldn't be enough to balance the budget, and questioned "What are the elimination of 17 people going to do for the deficit?"
Venice said that the union membership is unhappy about numerous matters involving the city administration, and said he will be suggesting that members stage a mass rally at the next City Council on Feb. 25. "We are going to address all of our issues then," he stated. He added that there have been a lot of rumors and pieces of information coming out of City Hall that employees are concerned about.
Jack Carney, director of Public Works, said the loss of so many employees from his department will definitely impact the maintenance schedules of the city's parks, playgrounds and ballfields. "We'll have to get creative, but we can't do what we used to," he said.
Carney noted that the Parks and Recreation Department typically begins around April 1 to prepare the playing fields used by high schools and Little League teams for spring sports. "It will take us a longer period of time to get the parks and ballfields ready," he said.
Carney added that the city has made great strides to improve its parks and recreational facilities in the past 10 years, and he is concerned about going backwards. He added that he is hoping to be able to gain back some of the personnel if the city's financial situation eventually improves