Furlough program could stave off layoffs

<p>The city's employee unions have accepted pay cuts and work furloughs that should be enough to avoid a $2.9 million shortfall over the next 18 months projected just a few months ago.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>City Manager John Brown told the City Council Monday that he is hopeful that Petaluma can enter its next budget cycle without a deficit. </p><p>On Tuesday, the city's biggest union agreed to go along with the program.</p><p>“I'd hoped to bring a package to you with a solution,” Brown said, but there were a few more agreements to reach among the city's five bargaining units. The Petaluma Police Officers Association agreed to the furlough program last week and the firefighters union has sent a letter agreeing in principle to the plan.</p><p>As for the other employee unions, Brown said, “We don't have a specific agreements, but they are in agreement. There is a little work to be done.” The furlough agreements can be reached between the unions and the city manager without council approval with a “side letter” to the existing labor contracts.</p><p>“I hope the next time I see you, we will have things worked out,” Brown told the council.</p><p>The furlough plan asks city employees to take off about 32 hours in each six-month period until June 2011, for a total of 96 hours of furloughs. This amounts to a 3.1 percent pay cut. Brown said salaried employees will also be taking a 3.1 percent pay cut, including himself, but that compensatory time off would be offered to them at a later date.</p><p>Hourly employees will keep their base pay rates to avoid complicating benefit calculations, Brown noted. Each department will develop policies for taking time off to manage work flows as best as possible and the program will be as flexible as possible to meet employee needs.</p><p>Each council member thanked the city's employees for working out a difficult problem. </p><p>“You are all really going to benefit from it as a whole,” Mayor Pam Torliatt said. “Someone won't be laid off. I appreciate your working together; it's more like a family by doing that.”</p><p>Since October 2008, the city has lost 50 employees from early retirements or layoffs prompted by budget-cutting moves. The city's general fund dropped from $44 million in the 2007-2008 fiscal year to $32 million this year. Without the furloughs, Brown predicted there would be a $2.9 million gap between revenue and expenditures for the remainder of the current fiscal year and fiscal year 2010-2011.</p><p>On Tuesday afternoon, em-ployees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employ-ees Local 675 agreed to go along with police and firefighters and sign on to the 96-hour furlough plan. They agreed in 2008 to forgo pay raises, which helped the city get a head start on working out budget problems, Brown noted.</p><p>“We still have to sit down and iron out the wrinkles,” AFSCME president Doug Silacci said after the Tuesday vote. “Then we'll go from there.”</p><p>AFSCME represents about half of the city's employees, just over 100 clerical, technical and maintenance workers. Other unions represent mid-managers, police, fire and professional workers. </p><p>“In six months, we'll get back together with the city to see where we're at,” Silacci said. “If the city is in better condition, we can reduce the furlough hours; if it's worse, we might add on more.”</p><p>While there are no guarantees, it's understood that the city will do everything possible to avoid further layoffs, Silacci noted. He said the plan will be reviewed every six months until June 2011.</p><p>Brown told the council on Monday that the union agreements “would stave off the further termination of any other position or layoff, and assuming no significant losses in revenues over the next six months, we should be in a fairly stable position going into next fiscal year putting our budget together.”</p><p>(Contact Jay Gamel at argus@arguscourier.com)</p>