Sarantou opinion piece in the Blade and some ideas I have…
While I recommend reading Councilman George Sarantou’s opinion piece because it does contain quite a bit of information as to the exact numbers and what the challenges are that face Toledo, I don’t agree with all that was written. Not from a fact standpoint, Saratou as finance chair presents the information correctly from how I’ve heard it presented. What I don’t agree with is the belief that it has to be that painful as far as the affect on the citizens of Toledo, here are a few suggestions that I’ve come up with or have been suggested by others or have been inspired by some of the plans of others. I’m interested in your thoughts/reactions.
The City Administration states 9 million dollars comes from the General Fund to pay the employee portion of the PERS, I agree with Councilman D. Michael Collins who believes it’s higher than that, but for the sake of our purposes here, let’s use that as an example. Other cities, like Columbus, have faced the reality, cities can no longer afford to do this, and this is not a quick solution, since it involves union contracts but if the goal was to reduce that cost by half? At least 5 million dollars could be saved.
Trash collection, while the City is anticipating still buying the trash cans, personally I think that is a mistake, at least at the number they are buying. Most other areas provide one can at no charge then charge for the second one, the average cost of the additional can is $50.00. If this were done, it would halve the cost of the 9.6 million dollars for the trash carts. Now on to the trucks, the proposal from Allied Waste was less than what it costs the City to operate it’s trash collection service. Additional savings of at least 12.4 million dollars would be saved over the course of time if the City did not lease/purchase the 40 new garbage trucks. If the City were to privatize the service through a contract with Allied Waste so that they would be the subcontractor, the savings between the difference in employer related costs and the payments for the new trucks would save at least 2 million dollars a year. If the City were to totally privatize the system, there would be at least double that as a savings, taking into consideration the trash fee income that would have to stop being collected.
I’d also recommend shutting down all non-emergency City offices on Friday or Monday and go to a nine hour four day week, for all employees not just the exempt staff. This would create savings in salary and would not create any juggling as far as the Mayor’s latest plan to have the exempt employees have to figure how how to staff the City for the same five day work week. This alone even without the PERS cut would create a ten percent across the board savings in salary for all non-emergency staff, it would probably require union concessions. It could create additional utility savings and provide a benefit to all non-emergency city workers, they would be given one additional day off per week, with either the Friday or the Monday creating a three day weekend scenario. The ability to schedule doctors and other appointments, child care costs, even increased opportunities for volunteering would all exist if the City of Toledo opted for a four day non-emergency operation schedule. If the trash service was privatized/subcontracted this would not impact trash collection, if it was not, that department could easily operate on a five day schedule though it would be less cost effective.
The benefit to shutting down City services on a Monday over a Friday would be to capitalize on the five Monday holidays that the City closes on since holidays that fall on a Friday for 2009 are not generally ones that would always be on a Friday. For non-exempt employees this would require contract changes to eliminate these as paid Monday holidays, this would create additional salary savings since logically there is no reason to pay a holiday when the employee would be regularly scheduled off work. Even if the employees were given two or three more personal days to use at their discretion to make up for the elimination of the five paid Monday holidays, this would still create a substantial savings.
The changing in work hours could also be something considered by the Municipal Courts, it’s possible they could also benefit from a four day work week for some of their functions, it would be worth at least exploring. Realistically most of the County functions could be handled in the same way.
For those that think it can’t be done? Utah is saving millions…with overtime and absenteeism being cut by about 9 percent since the four-day workweek was adopted.
Lisa Renee,
The fascinating thing to me on this is that both you and Maggie Thurber have come up with a number of logical and creative ways for the city to meet their responsibilities as defined by the City Charter and their responsibilities to the citizens of Toledo in a new budget. The people whose job it is to create that budget, the Administration and the Council, seem incapable of the same logic and creativity however.
Instead what we get is name calling, passing the buck, and political posturing. There seems to be far more concern with these people for positioning themselves for their next run for political office than for doing the jobs that they have already been elected to. Let them beware of such actions, as voters in Toledo seem to be slowly awakening, and will remember this behavior.
March 21st, 2009 at 11:40 amThe 36 hour work week idea was inspired by some on Council and the administration, I just kicked it up a few notches and I know the City is at least considering a four day work week.
The PERS issue has been one that Council has started to focus on as well, same with the trash collection issue, it’s been discussed. Last I heard they were waiting for a response from the Teamsters as to could they match the Allied Waste proposal as is required per their contract as it was explained to me.
So while I’d like to see more public conversation about some of these items, Council and the Administration are at least discussing the beginning points of what I’ve thrown out there. Should they do more? Yes! It’s much easier for me to suggest things, there is a political backlash factor that could come with some of the ideas suggested. Which I believe is a valid reason why blogs can be helpful, ideas presented can be discussed, debated, vetted and hopefully can inspire those elected to move forward.
March 21st, 2009 at 12:30 pmTim – it’s funny you say that about an awakening – I was thinking the same thing this week.
People who I’ve known for years who were very uninterested in politics are now actively discussing office holders, policies and responsibilities.
I know one person who vocally bragged about his disconnectedness from politics just last year. This year he’s discussing the issues and gotten an internet connection so that he can research rather than just read the Blade.
It is an awakening.
March 21st, 2009 at 12:31 pmOn Monday, I’ll be discussing this column when I substitute for Brian Wilson.
While I’m certain the numbers presented are accurate, I know they are not complete. Just one example is the exclusion of the income/revenue generated by fines/costs collected by the court. That’s about $4 million/year, but Sarantou doesn’t detail that figure, except in a passing and dismissive way.
You know me and numbers – I’ve gone through this and am still gathering data, so I’ll have a lot more on the subject Monday.
Some good ideas, Lisa, for reducing the costs – certainly worthy of more detailed examination by council members and the administration.
March 21st, 2009 at 1:01 pmMaggie, I know you and numbers
I don’t disagree some information was missing, but it’s a good place for people to start if they haven’t been paying attention.
We both share the goal of getting people to start talking about this, it’s not as if we have all the time in the world to start addressing it.
March 21st, 2009 at 1:36 pmLisaRenee wrote:
… in fact, we’re probably PAST time…
March 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pmMr. Sarantou wrote a fine article and this kind of information needs to be communicated more often. You brought up some excellent suggestions for savings as well, Lisa. Weren’t we talking on this blog a year or so ago about council members arguing over how to spend the “surplus” income generated by the trash fee? What the article fails to address are the reasons revenue doesn’t keep pace with operating costs in Toledo. “Business friendly Toledo” is as much of an oxymoron as jumbo shrimp. A family member has been trying to expand a Toledo business for months and has encountered endless bureaucratic red tape and fees that seem to be designed to chase growth to the suburbs. After calling the Chamber of Commerce for assistance with the problem they were told “we get complaints like this all the time.”
If Toledo stopped chasing the revenue producers away with punitive taxes and policies the decisions about cutting wouldn’t be nearly as difficult to make.
March 21st, 2009 at 1:50 pmSo, according to George, we’re paying more money for 245 fewer people in “general fund employees”?
And, a quick search on the Ohio Dept. of Development finds the the average weekly paycheck in the Private Sector is $710, while Local Gov’t Employees take home $821 weekly, Lucas County.
The phrase, “You Will do Better in Toledo” should be changed to “You Will DO Better in Toledo Government”
Carry on….
March 21st, 2009 at 7:53 pmIt’s good that Sarantou gave us a breakdown of where the city money goes and the shortfalls we face, but after reading the article, it seemed as if he was trying to make the case that taxes are not high enough to catch up with inflation. He cited the millage in Dayton and other major cities, which apparently is close to double what we pay. I feel as if this was added to the article to show that this situation could have been prevented if the income tax would have been increased. I think higher taxes are the last thing we need.
I applaud you, Lisa, for your ideas on how to make up some of this deficit money. Privatizing the trash pickup could truly help in the long run. It’s hard for the government to let go of something it has run for so long, but it’s better for Toledo in the future and it doesn’t affect the current services.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:32 pmGeorge is right….Dayton is a great example. Next maybe we can look at Lima and Youngstown as something to strive for.
Sad….lack of accountability is a plague.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:11 pmTwo things must be recognized with this proposal: 1)Try as you may, you cannot get 40 hours of work done in 36 hours. There will be a cut in services. 2) The best and the brightest employees will not accept a 10 percent pay cut for themselves or their families and will jump ship. Its already happening. Yes, there are still jobs out there (maybe not in Toledo) for bright, skilled people.
March 28th, 2009 at 10:47 pm