Mayor: Layoffs could top 10 percent
Without pay concessions, pink slips might have to go out by month’s end
‘If that happens, we will suffer for a long time.’ Stamford mayor David Martin
STAMFORD — The 2020-21 budget, already austere, can quickly bees come exponentially harsher.
Mayor David Martin said this week if labor unions do not agree to wage freez for two years and a cheaper health-insurance plan, at least 10 percent of the city’s workforce could be laid off. That does not include employees working for the public school district, who also face potential layoffs and whose portion of the budget is overseen by the Board of Education.
Ideally, any agreements or layoffs should be enacted before the fiscal year ends on June 30, Martin said. That’s so the city may realize the savings needed to operate after July 1 in an economy crippled by the coronavirus pandemic, Martin said.
“I need to take actions as
soon as I can. The longer it takes, the harder it becomes to save this money,” Martin said. “If there are less savings, we will have to have more job cuts.”
He had a meeting Wednesday and another on Thursday “to make layoff decisions,” he said.
“At some point I have to go to the Board of Finance and Board of Representatives and say, ‘These are the people I would lay off if we can’t get to an agreement.’ We are in the process of doing that,” the mayor said. “I hope it’s for naught. I don’t want to do it.”
A 10 percent workforce cut would mean, for example, that among the 270 police officers, 27 would lose their jobs. Of the 250 firefighters, 25 would be out of work. For the 115 city supervisors, about a dozen would find themselves unemployed.
“It’s possible we will see layoff notices at the end of this month,” Martin said.
Without salary freezes and change in the health benefits package, he will have to make a series of complicated calculations, the mayor said.
“Let’s say for argument’s sake it would require laying off four percent of employees. The people who are laid off tend to be newer on the job and earn smaller salaries, so that wouldn’t save enough money. So I might have to lay off five percent,” Martin said.
“Work would still have to get done, so I would have to add overtime to compensate for that,” he continued. “Now I have to make up for the overtime, and that brings me to eight percent laid off. Then I have to account for the unemployment requirements we have to pay for, so now it’s ten percent or eleven1 percent laid off.”
Union negotiations are conducted in private, as allowed under open-government laws. The city is “making progress,” Martin said Thursday.
“It’s slower than I would like.” he said. “We are hopeful. Some of the union representatives have been very constructive; some are less so.”
Sgt. Kris Engstrand, president of the 270-member police union, Friday said communications remain open.
Dan Colleluori, president of the MAA, which represents 115 city supervisors, said Friday his union sent the city another counter proposal on Thursday.
Capt. David Davis, president of the 250-member Stamford Professional Firefighters Association, said Friday “the union and the city are continuing negotiations.”
At the same time, the Board of Education awaits the outcome of negotiations with its four unions.
School Superintendent Tamu Lucero also had asked that union members give up pay raises for two years.
This week, however, Lucero reportedly said there would be no layoffs if unions agree to no raises for one year, according to multiple union leaders and a school board member. The largest union, the Stamford Education Association, which represents more than 1,500 teachers, rejected the revised proposal, saying they have a negotiated agreement for raises in 2020-21, and it is not clear how a one-year wage freeze would prevent layoffs. Administrators previously had said they needed a two-year pay freeze in order to avoid cutting jobs.
Martin said that, for the city, there will be noticeable consequences for citizens if the sides cannot agree — fewer cops on the beat, perhaps fewer garbage and recycling pickups,
maybe a three-week wait for a building permit.
“Parking Enforcement would be less affected because the officers generate revenue. Then we’ll be a city that cuts services and says, ‘But we’ll be sure to give you a parking ticket,’ ” Martin said. “I don’t want to go there.”
Without services, the city will struggle to recover from the economic effects of COVID-19, he said.
“Who wants to move to a town that doesn’t have its roads paved or have enough police officers, or doesn’t pick up its garbage?” Martin said. “If that happens, we will suffer for a long time.”
The Board of Finance has determined that, in order to balance the budget in 2020-21, the city and school district together must cut $32.2 million, an unprecedented amount.
The reason is that Stamford is unusually dependent on property tax revenue, and it is expected that many residents will not be able to pay their bills on time because they have lost jobs, income or businesses.
Martin said the board “took the right direction” in anticipating the revenue shortfall.
“You don’t want to wait to the end of the year and find out you missed your budget by $45 million,” Martin said. “We’re trying to be proactive rather than reactive, which is always more damaging.”
The school system has to find $12.5 million in savings from a roughly rounded $300 million budget. On the city side, the mayor and department heads have to cut $16 million out of a smaller budget of roughly $200 million.
Martin said he dreads the prospect of layoffs.
“It’s so awful that I am having a hard time getting my head around it,” he said.