Of the 1,300 municipal employees, public safety officias make up almost 800, Sarno said.
Springfield Police Chief William Fitchet, left, and Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant are seen in these file photos.SPRINGFIELD – The number of police and firefighters facing layoffs in July ranges from zero to 50, based on budget scenarios presented Friday by city’s public safety officials.
In the first glimpse of the Police Department budget, Commissioner William J. Fitchet said several options – including laying off up to 30 employees, wiping out the overtime account or sharply cutting back funding for the Quinn Bill – are being considered to meet spending targets for the next fiscal year.
“We’ll have to pick the best of the worst scenarios,” Fitchet said, adding that choosing any option “is going to be painful.”
Fire Chief Joseph A. Conant said closing at least one station, leaving 12 vacancies unfilled and laying off as many as 20 employees could be necessary, depending on how much must be cut from the department’s current $19 million budget.
Spending for overtime, fire prevention and public education efforts will be sharply curtailed, even if layoffs are averted, Conant said.
Both commissioners made their estimates during a public safety budget hearing at City Hall attended by Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, chief administrative and financial officer Lee C. Erdmann, and other top officials.
Sarno said it was too early to tell how drastically next year’s budget will be cut, but he said reducing spending on police and fire services is unavoidable.
“Of the 1,300 municipal employees, public safety makes up almost 800,” Sarno said. “We’re cutting (those services) because they are the bulk of the budget.”
Sarno said several factors – including passage of new trash fee increases and hotel and motel taxes by the City Council, and the possibility of additional state aide – will determine how many layoffs and service reductions will be necessary.
Tapping into the $40 million surplus account will help soften the cuts, but the mayor warned against plundering the city’s reserves to balance its budget. That tactic helped devalue the city’s bond rating and spur creation of the state-ordered Finance Control Board to oversee municipal finances from 2005 to 2009, Sarno noted.
“We’ve come a long way – we can’t go back to the old days,” the mayor said, referring to the city’s financial tumble during Mayor Michael J. Albano’s fourth term.
“We’re not going back to the brink of bankruptcy,” he added.
Fitchet said he will discuss budget options with Sarno, and offer a recommendation on the best choice for the department.
To prevent or limit layoffs, the chief suggested reducing Quinn Bill benefits for officers by 15 percent, 25 percent or 50 percent. Another possibility would be cutting some or all of the $820,000 overtime account, Fitchet said.
Sarno said any cutbacks to fire or police are unfortunate but unavoidable. Five years of sharply reduced state funding, a national recession and two natural disasters since June have taken a toll on the city’s finances, the mayor said.
“We’ve been doing more with less, and now we’re looking at doing less with less,” he said.
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