News - Local News

POSTED: Friday, May. 22, 2009

Bellingham budget woes could affect worker pay, benefits

Task force recommends $6 million in cuts for 2010

BELLINGHAM - The city's 800 employees should forgo a mid-2009 raise, accept a wage freeze in 2010 and pay more for benefits for the city to avoid a 2010 budget deficit, Bellingham officials have recommended.

And to stave off the need for more police forces, automatic traffic infraction cameras should be placed in certain parts of the city, a move that could bring in $500,000 in revenue annually.

Those items were part of $7.7 million in city budget reductions and revenue increases for 2010 as part of a long-term strategy for the new state of the economy. The recommendations come from a financial task force created by Mayor Dan Pike in November.

About $8.3 million could be saved in 2010 and then in future years, according to a task force report released by city officials Thursday, May 21.

The city is facing a budget deficit of nearly $6 million in 2010, said Administrative Officer David Webster, and that's where the recommendations come in.

But a large chunk of the cuts - about $4.83 million - are contingent upon whether the eight unions that represent various employee groups would agree to not taking a mid-2009 raise and also would agree to a wage freeze and benefit reductions for 2010.

Without the cuts, officials are faced with cutting 50 to 75 positions in the fall, Pike has said previously.

Officials repeatedly said Thursday that the report is only recommendations to Pike, who will make decisions about how to proceed by the end of May.

The various unions are still working through the recommendations and requests from city officials, said David Warren, president of the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council. The council is an umbrella organization that includes many of the various unions the city must work with. Warren said about 70 percent of the city's employees are part of the Labor Council.

"All of the bargaining units recognize the financial crisis we're in," Warren said. "People are interested in maintaining a living wage and benefit structure. I think people are willing to pay more into (their benefits), but how much ... we're not exactly sure yet."

Warren said there was some concern that city officials were "ram-rodding" the recommendations to pressure the unions into making quick decisions.

"I'm not trying to make light of the fact that we're in a financial crisis. This is not just a problem, this is a major problem," Warren said. "It's just something (the unions are) not in a position to race through. There are delicate answers that need to come out I hope within the time frame, but maybe not."

Webster said he didn't believe the city was trying to make the unions kowtow by telling the public much of the reductions should come from personnel and benefit costs, which are about 60 percent of the city's general fund.

He said bargaining units had been asked to offer up their own ideas or whether or not they agreed to any of the recommendations by Memorial Day - though that isn't an official cut-off date for such discussions - because city officials need to begin working on the 2010 budget.

"I think the economy is putting pressure on them like it is all of us," Webster said.

Departments will have to tell officials by June 1 what positions could be cut to make up the $6 million deficit in 2010 so budget planning can get done.

The task force consisted of Webster, city department heads and City Council members Gene Knutson and Stan Snapp.

"Nothing was sacrosanct," Webster said while discussing the 74-page report.

Among the recommendations are:

• Delaying hiring a Public Development Authority executive director.

• Reducing employee benefit costs, such as using less costly insurance plans with higher deductibles.

• Cancelling mid-year 2009 salary bumps and freezing salaries and wages for all employees in 2010.

• Installing automated traffic citation cameras in school zones with high levels of infractions and at intersections with the most accidents because of drivers running red lights.

Several other ideas included in the report need further study.

The task force is asking Pike to rank them and then create groups that can look into each idea further, since they either couldn't come to agreement on them or didn't have enough information to provide advice.

Those recommendations included liquidating city-owned property for the dispatch center, unpaid worker furloughs, more permit center changes including possible privatization and creating countywide service districts for various functions like libraries, parks or fire protection.