With the deadline for the city to get its budget in place for the next fiscal year, proposals by Mayor Domenic Sarno to balance the budget through personnel-based costs are getting the most political attention.
Last night, the City Council addressed Sarno’s call for city workers to take unpaid furlough days by passing a resolution (read: no teeth) with a delightfully Marxist flavor: under the councilors’ proposal, instead of all workers taking the 12 furlough days proposed by the mayor, the workers with the biggest paychecks would take the most furlough days. The plan, proposed by at-large Councilor Kateri Walsh, would exempt employees making less than $25,000 from the requirement completely. From there, the number of days required would range from one to 15, depending on salary.
Pete Goonan reports in the Springfield Republican that Sarno (who, under the plan, would take 13 furlough days) will ask his finance department to look over the proposal. The deal would apply to non-union workers only (about 330 in total, Goonan reports). The mayor has also asked municipal labor unions to accept furlough days; thus far, only one group—the public building tradesmen—has agreed.
Meanwhile, mayoral candidate and School Committee member Antonette Pepe is questioning the decision to leave unfilled positions on the books rather than eliminate them, which would reduce the need for furloughs or layoffs. The most recent City Hall figures call for 13 layoffs, down from an initial estimate of 33.
“I am quite upset that over 13 employees will not have jobs and over 350 people are being forced to lose money and have their wages frozen,” Pepe said in a campaign press release.
Pepe also drew attention to the high salary paid to Sarno’s chief of staff, Denise Jordan, whose salary has climbed to just under $80,000 over the past few years. Twenty percent of Jordan’s hiring salary, Pepe noted, had been designated as compensation for overseeing the city’s police review board. Jordan no longer has that responsibility but continues to draw the extra pay; “This is the kind of fiscal irresponsibility that we can not afford in Springfield,” Pepe said.
