News - Local News

POSTED: Friday, Aug. 07, 2009

Bellingham prepares to lay off more city workers

BELLINGHAM - More city employees will be without jobs as of Aug. 17, officials say.

Mayor Dan Pike's administration hasn't convinced all eight unions representing city employees to agree to various concessions, so 15 people will be laid off and two employees will have their hours reduced, city officials said.

All told, 33.34 full-time equivalent positions will be cut. Some employees are taking a voluntary layoff, some are retiring and their positions won't be refilled, and some vacant positions are being cut, in addition to the layoffs and hour reductions, said Chief Administrative Officer David Webster.

The move is expected to save the city about $3.4 million, Webster said.

City officials already have eliminated 32 positions since 2008, with five actual layoffs in the building permit center. The rest came through attrition by not filling vacant positions when people left or retired. There are about 800 city employees.

But another round of layoffs is likely later this year, said Human Resources Director Michelle Barrett.

The savings is smaller than the $4.83 million the city said it needed in union concessions to help stave off future budget deficits, which the administration has been grappling with since 2008.

Pike said in June that without cuts, some 50 to 75 positions would be eliminated this fall.

Local firefighter and paramedic unions agreed to a salary freeze through 2010 that would save the city more than $1 million, according to initial estimates from Pike.

Two unions - workers represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 114 and a supervisory professionals group, Teamsters Local 231 - declined to make concessions to the city.

"It went on and on and there was a lot of bargaining and ideas floated and ultimately they decided at that point they weren't going to contnue. And that's their right," Webster said. "Obviously the door is not closed."

Representatives for both unions could not be reached for comment Friday.

David Warren, president of the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council, said he hopes that the city and unions will continue talking, since there is still time before employees get laid off.

The council is an umbrella organization that includes many of the various unions the city must work with. About 70 percent of the city's employees are part of the Labor Council.

Though he wasn't familiar with the specifics of the negotiations, Warren said the unions "had exhaustive meetings with members seeking direction and consensus in an extremely difficult situation."

The council leader previously had sparred verbally with Webster in the media, saying he was concerned that the city was "ram-rodding" recommended cuts by publicly putting the decisions on the unions. Webster, however, said there wasn't much the city could do when 60 percent of the budget is related to personnel costs.

Later, Warren complimented the city for working more closely with the unions than Whatcom County officials were as they also sought contract concessions.

"Where it is ultimately going to end up yet, I'm not sure. I hope that more dialogue continues up until the day final decisions have to be made," he said. "It's hard, very hard."

Barrett, the city's human resources director, said she appreciated the work the unions did with the city to try to come to an agreement, though one wasn't reached.

"There's no blame here on anything," she said, "people do the best they can with what they have."