10/14/11 Millersburg votes to layoff street department employees

  • By Nick Sabo
  • October 14, 2011
  • 286
                        
SUMMARY: Cuts will save village $107,000 in wages, benefits In what Mayor Jeff Huebner called a “very difficult” decision, Millersburg Village Council voted Thursday Oct. 13 to lay off two street department employees. Council made the decision after a lengthy discussion in executive session before going on record, Huebner said. “After a lengthy three hour executive session, council elected to lay off two employees in the street department,” Huebner said. “This was something not one of us wanted to do.” The lay-offs will save the village about $107,000 in wages and benefits, Clerk/Treasurer Karen Shaffer said. The layoffs take effect Nov. 4 and will bring the street department’s staff down to six full time employees. The meeting of council Thursday was called to address a projected $150,000 general fund shortfall over the next six months. The shortfall goes through the end of the 2011 budget year and into April 2012, Shaffer said, and is due to state budget cuts. Further savings will come out of salaries in the Millersburg Police Department, Shaffer said. The savings will come through the resignation of a senior officer and cutting back some part-time hours, according to Shaffer. The village is placing a .5 percent income tax increase before voters in the Nov. 8 general elections to offset the loss in state revenue. The income tax would raise about $500,000 a year. Shaffer said the layoffs were necessary even if the income tax passes. The village won’t see the first income tax payment until April. Village Administrator Kevin Brooks had suggested savings by making cuts in services, such as snow removal and leaf pick-up. These cuts were discussed Thursday but no action was taken on them, Brooks said. However, Brooks said he stands behind council’s decision “100 percent”. There will be no interruption of services performed by the street department for the time being, Brooks said. “The way I understand it, we are going forward business as usual, that services will not be effected,” Brooks said. “We’ve sat down with the street department and these guys are going to work together and give the best possible service with the staff we have.” Brooks echoed Huebner’s sentiments about having to let the two employees go. “I am sick, physically sick over this,” Brooks said. “I think an awful lot about our staff members. It was a business decision, but you can’t take the personal feelings out of it. Hopefully we won’t have to do this again.”


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