By TOM TROY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Article published Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Relief permeated Government Center yesterday after Mayor Jack Ford announced a last-minute deal to avoid police and fire layoffs.
Instead of an angry confrontation at Toledo City Council's last meeting of the year, council members and union representatives heaped gratitude upon each other last night.
"I appreciate each of you spending the time you did with us. We're here as a large group to say thank you," said Gregg Harris, president of the Toledo Police Patrolman's Association.
In the audience were dozens of police and firefighters wearing T-shirts with the slogans, "Keep Toledo Strong" and "Keep Toledo Safe."
Yesterday morning, Mr. Ford and leaders of council announced they had squeezed 13 different sources to come up with $3.3 million out of a $223.6 million general fund budget to be able to rescind the planned layoffs of 27 police officers and 23 firefighters.
The settlement was reached nine days before the layoffs were to take effect.
The relief was not complete because there will still be layoffs and cutbacks in other services.
And there was some suspicion - strongly denied by top city officials - that the $3.3 million was available all along.
City officials said the resolution came together in just the last few days.
"We did not have these solutions a week ago - two weeks ago - three weeks ago," Council President Louis Escobar said.
"We still don't have a balanced budget," he said. Council will vote on a budget next month.
Mayor Ford said, "If we hadn't had some break in our budget we'd have had to go down the path we were looking at."
Some of the savings resulted from the city taking a closer look at how it spent money in 2004 and deciding it could make additional savings in 2005.
The city underspent its $25 million health care budget by $400,000 and its overtime budget by $300,000 in 2004, and now believes it can make the same savings in 2005.
The administration also hopes to squeeze another $400,000 in savings from a purchasing freeze that successfully clamped down on spending this year.
Phone lines will be eliminated from unused desks, at a savings of $90,000, and the city arts consultant's salary, $27,500, will be funded through private sources.
Some of the savings will come from negotiations with other agencies or departments that do business with the general fund.
The city intends to seek a savings of $100,000 in its obligations to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, and is counting on savings or new revenues of $150,000 from the Downtown Toledo Parking Authority.
The Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority has agreed to reimburse the city $232,000 for the services of three officers to patrol the public housing complexes.
The Department of Public Utilities, which is funded by sewer, water, and storm sewer rates, will reimburse the general fund $305,000 a year for full-time police protection of the Collins Park water-treatment plant.
Some of the additional cash is made possible because of the decision not to do layoffs.
Police Chief Mike Navarre will continue to assign 14 officers to the Toledo and Washington Local junior and senior high schools, in return for payments of $384,000. The chief had ordered an end to the program saying he needed the officers on the street.
Contrary to reports a day earlier, Mr. Ford said yesterday the city will disband the motorcycle and helicopter units because the officers are needed for the street patrol.
In addition, the city will save $150,000 in unemployment compensation by averting the layoffs.
The administration accepted a $200,000 higher revenue forecast for 2005 given last week by its economic consultant, University of Toledo finance professor Paul Kozlowski.
The biggest chunk, $561,500, will be borrowed from the City- Parks Fund, established in 1991, with the taxes on the estate of late Blade publisher Paul Block, Jr. The fund has about $2.4 million. The fund supports recreation programs.
Mr. Ford said a comment made in a city council hearing Dec. 9 by Fire Chief Michael Bell raised questions about whether the city could legally lay off firefighters. Chief Bell suggested that the city's fire department response would suffer if the city failed to maintain current staffing of 103 firefighters per shift, as required by its contract with Toledo Firefighters Local 92.
"Once that was on the record that pretty much meant you weren't going to be laying off firefighters without a legal fight," Mr. Ford said.
The mayor said he received a lot of calls, many from senior citizens worried about the proposed police and fire layoffs.
"There was a feeling we need to keep our safety forces."
In previous discussions, the mayor has said the city must downsize to keep pace with its smaller population. He said yesterday that downsizing will take place through attrition.
Mr. Escobar dropped his proposal for a $7 monthly trash fee last night, and was joined by other council members in praising the role of the presidents of the police and fire unions in coming up with alternatives.
Don Czerniak, president of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 7, said he is glad police and firefighters are not facing the loss of their jobs just before Christmas. He said he wishes members of his union enjoyed the same amount of attention.
"My biggest thankfulness for the holidays is that nobody has to hit the streets," he said of the police and fire departments.
Of the 82 layoffs originally proposed, 50 involved the police and fire departments. Of the remaining 32, 25 are employees in Local 7, and most are expected to be retained by the city in posts not funded by the general fund.
Councilman Frank Szollosi urged the mayor and administration to keep looking for savings to maintain unrestricted trash collection and to staff civilian communications clerks in the police department.
Contact Tom Troy at:
tomtroy@theblade.com
or 419-724-6058.