Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009

Business as usual? Some say East St. Louis furloughs unfairly applied

Workers say they have not received day off for money taken from checks

EAST ST. LOUIS -- Furloughs for city employees are being met with strong criticism by some because they said they were not done fairly across the board.

And, employees say they have not been given the day off for the money that was taken from them. City Manager Robert Betts said employees will be given a day off for the furlough money taken from their checks.

Betts said the tough decisions he has had to make regarding employee furloughs, overtime and other city related matters to tighten the city's finances have not been popular with some individuals, prompting him to receive threats on his life in the past couple of months.

The pay period that began Oct. 1 and ended Oct. 15 was the first time city employees received salary cuts. Since then, the buzz at City Hall has not been good. Several employees said they would not mind the furloughs if everyone was losing money out of their checks. But, since that isn't case, they said it's aggravating and business as usual -- friends and cronies of politicians and family members of politicians -- are not affected.

Nonunion employees must take a furlough day per pay period. But employees say not all nonunion members are part of the furloughs.

Police officers, firefighters, public works employees and police dispatchers are not a part of the furloughs. And, since everybody was not included in the furloughs, City Councilman Delbert Marion said he could not support the move.

He said as chairman of the Public Safety Committee, he should be a part of discussions like this, but he wasn't.

Betts said some nonunion members who supervise first responders are not part of the furlough.

"The police chief, for example, needs to be available for the police," he said. "The command staff for the police department was not furloughed. And, neither was the command staff for the fire department. The director of public works was not furloughed because he directs the public works department with all the sewer problems we have throughout the city.

"It's unfortunate that it had to come to furlough days for the employees, but the furloughs interrupted the laying off of two to three employees before the end of the year."

He said the city's nearly $3 million budget deficit is causing officials to look at a number of ways to cut back expenses for the city. The furloughs continue until the end of the year.

"Gaming revenues from the Casino Queen are way down and other revenues the city gets are down , too and they are not improving. The economy is sluggish. I think it's better to have jobs than not," Betts said.

He also indicated that in the budget city officials are preparing for 2010, there will be some job layoffs because of the city's unprecedented financial crisis.

Betts said the police and fire union members are not part of the furloughs because they did not agree to participate.

"Because of their contracts, they have to agree. We asked them to agree and they rejected our proposal. I am extremely grateful to the employees who did do the furloughs -- including me and other city officials who gave up their expense accounts.

Betts said East St. Louis is no different from the state of Illinois and other cities around the country, and other businesses and corporations when it comes to cutting back, laying off and doing other things to tighten belts for a long haul.

Asked whether mismanagement played a part in the city's finances becoming so bleak, Betts said ultimately management does have to bear some responsibility, but he steadfastly maintained that the main culprits are the downturn in revenue and the city's collective bargaining agreements with its unions.