U.D. orders furloughs and pay cuts for employees
UPPER DARBY » Facing a revenue shortage of $2 million, Upper Darby is partially furloughing dozens of its employees while administrators take a pay cut effective May 4.
“As of the end of March, we were already maybe $2 million off of last year,” township Chief Administrative Officer Vincent Rongione said. “As a result at the management level, myself and a few high level managers are taking a 10 percent reduction in pay. Other department heads are taking a 5 percent reduction ... (and) we are going to end up furloughing 55 workers.
“It’s really a brutal situation,” Rongione said.
The CAO said all of the impacted workers will retain their health and pension benefits and the administration intends to bring them all back.
“Absolutely, as soon as we’re able, we’ll bring them back,” he said.
Rongione joined Interim Police Superintedent Tim Bernhardt and Interim Fire Chief Mike Gove in voluntarily taking a 10 percent pay cut.
“No one is in this alone,” he said. “The management team has agreed to take meaningful salary reductions in an effort to show solidarity and share this burden.”
To the furloughed employees, he said, “We wish you and your families the best during this challenging time and are looking forward to your return to work following this furlough period. We will get through this together and emerge stronger as a workforce, a community, and a township.”
He said the township was placed in a precarious situation.
“We’re trying to keep it as minimal as possible,” Rongione said. “We feel like we have to do something to safeguard our long-term fiscal health and to safeguard their long term job security ... We’re trying to be responsible It’s not something we take lightly.
The township has approximately 450 employees.
He said he worked with employees’ union leaders on this as only members of the Office and Professional Employees Union were impacted. The furloughs don’t affect police, fire, sanitation or public works employees.
“Most of them will be working two days a week and they will be (off) three days a week,” Rongione said. Adding that with the $600 a week additional Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, he said, “They’ll actually do a little better in their take-home pay.”
The township CAO said he would be reaching out to Delaware County to see if municipalities can get assistance through the $98.8 million that was recently awarded to them for COVID assistance. There are restrictions placed on that funding and it’s uncertain if that money can be distributed to municipalities.
“It’s just a tough time, tough decisions,” Rongione said. “Municipal workers are on the front lines of this thing and the federal government has done nothing to support them. If the federal government had acted already, we may not have had to do this.”
Upper Darby Mayor Barbarann Keffer echoed that plea to the federal government for municipal assistance.
“Unfortunately, the federal government response, especially when it comes to supporting local governments, has been somewhere between slow, inadequate, and non-existent. While we deeply regret having to make this tough decision, COVID-19 has caused us to have to make some difficult choices to ensure the long-term success and safety of our community,” she said. “Our employees are the lifeblood of this administration and this community. We deeply appreciate every single one of them and their contributions. We are all in this together, and Upper Darby will come back a stronger community than ever before. In the meantime, we continue to call on the federal government to pass legislation that provides much-needed financial support to local communities.”