04/07/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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~3 C Council Minutes of 4/7/2009 April 1 S where the police would have to prove the city has the money, and the city has to prove they don't. She said she knew who would win that. Mayor O'Grady commented that city finances were open, and open government is good government. We've had approximately ten years of flat revenues and last year revenues dropped and continue to drop this year. As revenues have gone down, the cost of salaries and benefits has gone up. We need reasonable concessions, and the administration is hopeful. Mrs. Sidaway noted that surrounding towns such as Bay Village, Rocky River and North Ridgeville are hiring police officers. North Olmsted laid off 19% of the police force. Why are we so different? Mayor O'Grady said other municipalities have faced the same thing and done layoffs of police officers and fire fighters. He will compile a list and give it to Mrs. Sidaway. The only solution that's going to change the situation is concessions from our bargaining unions. Mrs. Sidaway asked if there had been concessions from the administration and Council. Mayor O'Grady said Council does not participate in the negotiations. Council is the law makers. They would approve or disapprove the negotiations once they are complete. It's administration exclusively. The administration has done everything they can do, but the bottom line is the dollars aren't there. When he first came into office, he met with the fire fighters and told them we cannot continue to do business this way. We need real concessions from bargaining units. We have had none, and exactly what he projected happened. Sadly we have laid off good people that we need. But we can't bring them back unless we have real concessions. Council President Kennedy explained to Mrs. Sidaway that Council has lowered their salaries by S% for the new term beginning in 2010 as salaries for elected officials cannot be changed during term. Also, the salaries will be frozen for four years. In addition, the salaries for a newly elected Mayor and Finance Director have been reduced S% and frozen for four years, and the salary for the newly elected Law Director has been reduced by 40% and frozen for four years. Council has done their best to set an example. Mrs. Sidaway said she reads in the paper that everything is fine is Fairview Park and Westlake, and it doesn't seem right to live in a second-class city. This is the first time in the SO years that she has lived here that she has felt this way. 2) Dennis Lambert, 2SOS7 Carey Lane, asked how much the city's debt service was. Finance Director Copfer answered the principal and interest was about $8 million. We are paying down almost $3 million in principal, so the interest is approximately $S million. Awhile ago, the city started to try to bring the debt service down by borrowing at a lesser amount than we are paying down each year, insuring we are borrowing for needed streets and improvements at a lesser amount than we're paying down every year. We do have to account for voted levies-library and fire station but that amount has gone down in total since she has been here. We are using a controlled borrowing philosophy so that needed capital improvements can continue to be made on our infrastructure in a responsible way so that it is less than what we are paying off in principal every year. Mr. Lambert noted some cities have money in the bank while other cities are borrowing. It's all a part of leadership. He thinks sometimes our employees are the victims of not-so-careful planning. Mayor O'Grady commented that at this point to affix blame with this Council over borrowing and our current economic condition, as far as debt and payment of debt service, is a little unjust. The debt we're talking about and dealing with was debt that came into the city before he was elected, and he is the longest 9