10/21/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

~~. Council Minutes 10-21-2008 told by the County administration and the elected official that is my boss, that there would be no raises. So I've been on the other end of the stick, so to speak, when there has been no raises. But my duty and my responsibility is to the citizens of North Olmsted. So my vote is no with the idea that, if in two months the administration through the Finance Director and the administration indicate where the cuts aze coming from or what adjustments are going to be made for 2009, I would be more than happy to revisit the salaries for all of the individuals in 2008-121. Until then, my vote is no." Roll call continued: Jones, no; Orlowski, yes; Barker, no, with comment. "City Council has been told that we will be facing some very tough times in 2009 since the first of the year. The numbers are between $1.1 to 1.5 million. Since mid-year, some of us have been asking for a plan for next year on how the problem will be handled. We are told that it will come with the budget by the end of the year. In the mean time, contracts have been settled with an increase of 4% in wages. Now, because of bazgaining getting that raise, the administration wants to give 7non-bargaining secretaries a raise to catch up to the bargaining employees. They were given a 2% raise at the beginning of the year, and we were told that catch-up would come after bargaining had settled. Well, now it is 3.1 going back to January of 2008. To me, that does not equal 2% for a total of 4% it appears to be 5.1%. It isn't much money, it is just shy of $16,000 for this yeaz. Also in a previous ordinance, the Mayor attempted to give his directors a sigzuficant raise in pay mid-year which I don't recall in my some ten years of attending meetings ever happening before. Why? Because he felt it was warranted. This Council took some pretty strong criticism for refusing his request. Again, we are facing a huge deficit next year. One of my colleagues feels that the administration should have been putting that money in a line item, in other words setting it aside for when the time came. I would agree. The question was asked on where would this money be coming from? The answer was about $5,000 from the Safety Depaztment from inspection fees and the other approximate $10,004 plus would be coming from the Service Dept. The approximate $10,000 plus is from selling used oil. We used to pay someone to take it away, but now someone pays the city for the used oil. A few of my colleagues feel that the raise should just be given automatically because everyone else has received a raise. But what about the middle management people who haven't received equality, are they to wait until next year? Is that fair? The Mayor is upset because every Council in the past has always said yes without question. Well, some of us on Council are now questioning and quite honestly maybe we should have been asking questions a lot sooner. In 2002, I wrote a letter as a resident to the previous administration concerning the budget crisis facing them. It was a $?50,0 shortfall for that year and a possible $2.2 million for 2003. All directors rallied together and worked to come up with a plan. It helped to some extent, but unfortunately we are now facing financial problems again. It was stated at one of our committee meetings recently that in 2002 our budget was 81% wages and benefits. Well, in 2008 with almost 100 fewer employees, it is now 85% or more. In 2002, it was discussed that hospitalization and other benefits had to come under control. Well, I must say that in the last couple of years hospitalization has been addressed and now employees are making bigger contributions to help and it is now an 80/20 plan which is also helpful. The administration is working on workers compensation, all good things. The problem I have, as a business owner, is that everyone. feels entitled to a raise every year. Well, quite frankly, many people who live in our city don't get raises every year. Some even face 10