Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By ANDREW TUTINO atutino@leader.net
Saturday, January 29, 2000 Page: 1A
HAZLETON – About 15 city government employees could be laid off as part of a
“best case” scenario to balance the 2000 budget, according to an internal
City Hall memo obtained by the Times Leader on Friday. The memo, prepared by
Mayor Louis Barletta’s administration as a budget worksheet for the City
Council, also reveals that the administration is considering eliminating the
tax office and privatizing that service. The cost-saving measures would only
help balance the 2000 budget. The measures wouldn’t touch the estimated
$555,000 deficit projected for Hazleton at the beginning of the year by city
auditors. Both plans would be belt-tightening measures by Barletta’s
administration to balance his first budget in the wake of a financial “mess”
he inherited from former mayor Michael Marsicano. On Thursday, the City
Council voted down five union contracts negotiated by the previous mayoral
administration, leaving most of the city’s workers without labor agreements.
Barletta said the possible layoffs would not be used as bargaining chips in
renegotiating those contracts, but instead are a starting place for his
administration to figure out where the city stands financially. “They are
actually just something to work with,” Barletta said, noting that the memo
was a working draft. “It was just to put something together because we needed
a starting point.”
Frustrations at City Hall continue to mount because with no labor
contracts, Barletta can’t get a solid budget draft to the council. By law,
the city should have a budget in place by Feb. 15, but Barletta doesn’t think
that will happen. “I pull no punches on this,” Barletta said. “This is how
it is. This is much more serious than some people realize.” The memo states
that in order to balance the budget the administration is anticipating having
to lay off seven police offi cers, one per diem employee from the engineering
department, two dispatchers, one clerk from the highway department and
completely shut down the tax office. The budget is projected to be $6.1
million. Marsicano’s pro jected budget for 2000 was about $6.7 million, but
the budget included a mysterious line item that called for the city to receive
$895,955 in miscellaneous revenues. Marsicano never publicly stated the
anticipated source of the revenue. As an added measure by Barletta, the
administration will probably not fill two open firetruck driver slots,
although their contract with the city calls for 18 drivers. The department has
16 firetruck drivers and the administration will probably “demonstrate an
inability to meet contractual demands” and will cite the deficit as
“legitimate reasons” to not hire the additional two drivers, according to
the memo. The proposals being weighed by the Barletta administration are
“best case” options. They assume wage freezes at 1999 rates, a lower city
contribution to the pension clause and less expensive severance packages.
Under the “worst case” scenario given in the memo, the city would have to be
carved up even more. The administration would be forced to lay off 16 police
officers, one highway department worker, one per diem employee from the
engineering department, two dispatchers, the entire tax office and not fill
the two firetruck driver positions. The “worst case” scenario would have
taken place if the City Council had ratified the union contracts on Thursday
night. For example, the police department’s contracts called for six months
salary and all medical and insurance benefits for 18 months as severance pay,
which would have forced the city to make deeper personnel cuts to be able to
afford them. Council President William Lockwood stressed Friday that the
layoff plans are not definite and officials are working to avoid terminating
any employees. “Hopefully we can, together, come up with the revenues that
would not only take care of unpaid bills but also take care of city
employees,” Lockwood said. “It seems like an impossible task, but it is what
we have to do.”
The tax rate can’t be raised because the city is already capped out at the
highest millage allowed by state law . Lockwood said the council would not
have raised taxes even if it were an option. But like Barletta, Lockwood fears
the numbers will only worsen as time passes and more problems are uncovered.
“This doesn’t come as a surprise to me,” Lockwood said. “This doesn’t paint
the story of how ugly it really is.” Cuts in city services are inevitable if
the city is forced to lay off a portion of its work force, Lockwood said.
Besides the cuts that would come from having fewer workers, the Barletta
administration would also end heavy item pickup and leaf pickup for one year.
By doing so, the estimated savings to the city would be $70,000, according to
the memo.