City of Evanston Blog
Budget Update
Here is the text of an email I sent to all City staff this afternoon:
"The City Council will be having a special meeting Monday evening to discuss budget issues now that we are through the first quarter of FY 2010/11. I will be sending everyone the information that will be presented to the City Council once the agenda is completed on Friday. However, I wanted to share with you today that I have issued layoff notices to three firefighters effective July 31, 2010.
When the budget was adopted by the City Council in February, I cautioned at that time that a critical element of keeping the FY 2010/11 budget balanced was implementing changes to employee salaries and benefits that were included in the budget. These changes were implemented immediately for managers and non-represented employees, but needed to go through the collective bargaining process for Police, Fire and AFSCME employees. I informed the City Council in February that I would assess our progress in accomplishing this in May. If these changes were not implemented by the end of May, I was concerned that continuing any unbudgeted salary and benefit costs would have a significant negative impact on the budget.
The City has worked diligently with Police, Fire and AFSCME unions to accomplish this goal. The long-standing arbitration with the Police (Teamsters) union was recently resolved with a three-year agreement going back to March 1, 2009 which met the allocated budget for FY 2010/11 and provides for salary increases in FY 2011/12. An agreement was also reached with AFSCME for a two year contract beginning March 1, 2010 which met the allocated budget for FY 2010/11 and provides for salary increases in FY 2011/12. The City has been unable to reach a similar agreement with the Fire Union despite several productive sessions in March and April. The City is now at the beginning of arbitration with the Fire Union. It is unclear when that process will be completed.
The FY 2010/11 budget does not have resources allocated in the Fire Department budget to provide Fire employees with salary and benefit adjustments greater than what has been settled with our other employee groups. I respect the collective bargaining process and the desire of the Fire Union and the City to have its hearing before an arbitrator on all unresolved components of a proposed contract: salary, benefits and other terms of an agreement. However, it is my responsibility to manage the City Council’s adopted budget and the City must reserve funds in the event the City is unsuccessful in arbitration and unbudgeted salary or benefit adjustments are awarded to the Fire Union. Therefore, I have eliminated three firefighter positions to fund any salary and benefit increases that may be awarded to the Fire Union by an arbitrator.
I am unwilling to recommend to the City Council additional reductions in other departments in order to reserve funds for any ongoing unbudgeted salary or benefit adjustments that may be awarded to the Fire Union. It is important to me that the overall impacts of citywide budget reductions be as fair and balanced as possible to our employees and all the important services they provide the residents of Evanston.
The elimination of three firefighter positions will effectively reduce our daily staffing of firefighters by one position, from 26 to 25. Interim Fire Chief Greg Klaiber has worked with his management team to develop alternate deployment plans that will minimize the public service impact of these reductions. Chief Klaiber’s plans are very similar to the plans developed by Police Chief Eddington and other department directors when the City eliminated 49.57 budgeted positions beginning March 1, 2010 to minimize the impacts of those reductions on service we provide the public.
I will continue to work to keep the FY 2010/11 budget in balance as we continue to carefully monitor revenue and expenditures. It is difficult to assess all of our revenue assumptions only three months into the budget, but so far our projections remain on target. The State of Illinois must grapple with its budget issues some day. When that day comes, the decisions of the Illinois General Assembly will likely have a negative impact on the budget of the City of Evanston. I will continue to keep you posted."
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2 Comments
When they are already understaffed 1 a shift is too many to lay off. They should have been given a fair negotiation first. It is not only unsafe for citizens but also for the firefighters on duty. Your plan might look good on paper and you might be meeting your goals but you need to think of the heart of the community. Something you are lacking.
June 17, 2010 5:11 PM
Are you kidding? "If you don't do what I want you to do, I'll have no choice but to get rid of you". That's not negotiating, that’s threatening. If you exercise your right by contract to go to arbitration, I'll have to lay people off. There hasn't even been a decision made by an arbitrator yet. Sounds punitive to me. I wonder what the Illinois Labor Relations Board might think of such a tactic. If this did not have such a profound impact on the safety of the Evanston firefighters and the people they serve, I doubt anyone would have to work to minimize the service impact. The most important part of your employee group are the people who represent public safety.
June 17, 2010 8:06 AM