As City of Wooster employees gathered at the Community Center on January 5 for citys annual recognition luncheon, the 24 employees who accepted the citys offer to retire under the voluntary separation program (VSP) were recognized for their years of dedicated service to the city.
Mayor Bob Breneman described the process the city went through in making the decision to offer the program.
This is something that we actually started thinking about pretty close to this time last year because we recognized we had a problem with revenue not meeting the expenses that were going out the other side, said Breneman adding you know when the money coming in doesnt match the money going out youve got to do something.
That something was to reduce costs.
With 70 percent of the citys budget comprised of personnel costs, it came down to staffing.
In a normal situation you usually say the last people in are the first people out because theyve been with you the shortest amount of time. We sort of took a different look at it, said Breneman.
Breneman explained that a VSP program takes the people who have served your community very well for many, many years who may be starting to think about retirement and incentivize that thought process a bit and say if you would consider doing this a little sooner than you had planned we will make it worth your while a little bit.
The more we got in to it we thought this might be a good thing because we have so many people in our city who have been with us for a very, very long time, said Breneman. This is one place that we dont have a lot of turnover, which is a very good thing. We get people here who believe in what theyre doing and enjoy what theyre doing and they stay for a lifetime.
Because public service time under the plan includes not only time the employee spent in Wooster but also in public service capacities in other government entities no one knew for sure how many people might qualify for the plan.
When 24 employees accepted the retirement offer we were truly astounded, said Breneman.
With 15 percent of the citys workforce retiring, its been a bit of a two edged sword, said Breneman.
According to Breneman while the city is grateful for finding a way to help meet its budget shortfall it quickly became obvious what the city would lose when so many long time employees left at one time.
Weve got 24 people that have 25-30 plus years doing this for the city and all the knowledge that they bring to the table Having all those people walk out the door at one time was like wow wait a minute, said Breneman.
Breneman told the VSP participants that the city is very thankful for your time and service to our community but were also pretty unnerved by the number of folks who went out and were still dealing with that.
Each day were still wading in and trying to figure this out a little bit, said Breneman adding each day we do it, it will get slightly easier.
I wish you the best in all of your retirement years. I hope that its everything you ever have dreamed of, Breneman told the retirees.
The rest of you – keep on going guys, said Breneman adding what a great statement for our city to lose 15 percent of our workforce and still keep on doing it. We do have changes were doing but we are making it.
Sidebar:
City bids farewell to retirees
In all the 24 retirees who accepted the City of Woosters offer to retire under Voluntary Separation Program have collectively accumulated over 700 years of public service.
The 24 long time city employees who took part in the VSP include:
.Tom Layland - Utilities Supervisor - Distribution and Collection section of the Utilities Division (36 years)
. Cheryl Anderson - Clerical Specialist - Police Division (21 years)
. Gary Palmer - Operator - Water Pollution Control Plant (21 years)
. Linda Severe - Customer Service Representative - Accounts Receivable Section of the Finance Division (21 years)
. Jim Newman – Maintenance Division Manager (35 years)
. Dan Grande - Police Officer - Police Division (35 years)
. Peggy Roney - Account Clerk - Maintenance Division (28 years)
.Doug Sparr - Tradesperson - Maintenance Division (29 years)
. Larry Rouhier - Operator - Water Pollution Control Plant (29 years)
. Bill Gilkison - Police Officer - Police Division (31 years)
. Terry Angert - Inspector - Building Standards Department (31 years)
. Pat Berg - HR Specialist - Human Resources Division (25 years)
. Glenn Bower - Operator - Water Production Plant (31 years)
.Greg Funk - Lab Technician - Water Pollution Control Plant (32 years)
.Kathy Gallo – Human Resources Division Manager (41 years)
. Jeff Long - Operator - Water Production Plant (30 years)
. Iretta McFadden - Parking Control Officer - Police Division (26 years)
. Chuck Malta - Parks and Recreation Division Manager (48 years)
. Don Macko - Instrumentation Technician - Water Pollution Control Plant (30 years)
.Ralph Maehler - Traffic Systems Supervisor - Maintenance Division (10 years)
. Al Mowrer - Tradesperson - Distribution Collection Department (21 years)
. Mike Sigg - Director of Administration (34 years)
. Arden Smucker - Accountant - Accounts Receivable Division (25 years)
. Jim Underwood - Equipment Operator - Maintenance Division (29 years)
