City offers 2nd round of buyouts

<p>More than 80 city of Petaluma employees are being offered an early retirement package as the city tries to cut costs, but so far only 15 have said they’re interested.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>If all 15 accept the offer, the city would save about $1.5 million a year — but only if those positions are kept vacant, which will be decided on a case-by-case basis, officials said.</p><p>“It’s not likely that all 15 of these would be kept open through the remainder of the year,” City Manager John Brown told the City Council at its April 20 meeting.</p><p>The interested employees include firefighters, parks and water department workers and office staff at City Hall. Buyouts would also be offered to the community development director and assistant director, whose department was cut back earlier this month due to a lack of revenue.</p><p>Water department employees are paid through water and sewer utility funds, so vacancies in those positions would not result in a savings to the general fund. However, other employees slated for layoffs could potentially move into open positions in the water department if they are qualified, resulting in salary savings in the general fund, officials said.</p><p>Early retirements in the water department “lend us the opportunity ... to provide some place for somebody to land in the event that we have a layoff on the general fund side,” Brown said.</p><p>The early retirement package includes a “service credit” of two additional years for employees age 50 or older who don’t have the required five years of tenure with City Hall.</p><p>Eligible employees will have a 90-day period, from May 25 until Aug. 22, to decide whether to accept the buyout. The added retirements would add $58,000 a year to the city’s pension costs, which has been factored into the projected savings.</p><p>Of the $1.5 million potential savings, approximately $785,000 would go toward the $36 million general fund, which Brown said faces a $1 million shortfall this year and a $3 million budget gap for the next fiscal year.</p><p>Last fall and winter, 20 of the city’s 340 employees took early retirement during an initial round of buyouts, including seven who otherwise would have been laid off.</p><p>“The notion here is, by asking people to do this voluntarily, you won’t have to do it involuntarily,” Brown said of the buyouts. “It’s an inducement and an opportunity to help find a gentler landing for folks as a way of getting the payroll reduced.”</p><p>Even if some of the vacated jobs have to be filled, savings could come from hiring someone at the lower end of the pay scale to replace a veteran employee who is making more, Brown told the council.</p><p>“I’m going to have to take a look at that on a case-by-case basis to determine how many of these folks we can really do without for a year’s time,” Brown said.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)</p>