Every municipal employee, including Sarno, will be asked to accept a wage freeze and 12 furlough days under the plan.
Domenic SarnoSPRINGFIELD – City unions reacted warily Wednesday to Mayor Domenic J. Sarno’s call for wage freeze and furloughs to offset a projected $5.4 million budget deficit beginning July 1.
Firefighters union president Lt. David Wells said he was disappointed to hear details of the mayor’s plan to freeze salaries of all 1,500 municipal workers and impose one furlough day each month.
Wells said the firefighters unit will meet Saturday to discuss the matter, and will make some public comment next week.
Kevin D. Coyle, lawyer for the city’s patrolmen’s union, said city officials and the state Finance Control Board have sought concessions in the past, with varying degrees of success.
“We’ve all been through this before; it’s almost an annual event,” said Coyle, who said he couldn’t comment on the patrolmen’s response to the plan.
Speaking generally, Coyle said some unions might accept wage freezes and furloughs to avert layoffs, while others might refuse.
“There are different (bargaining) groups, with different factors, with different ways of saving money,” Coyle said.
No negotiating date has been set for the city and the patrolmen’s union, Coyle said. “The phone hasn’t rung yet, but I suspect it will,” he said.
Sarno said he would like to reach agreements with all the bargaining groups in the next few weeks so the city’s budget can be finalized. Every municipal employee, including Sarno, will be asked to accept a wage freeze and 12 furlough days under the plan.
Without concessions, basic services will be cut and as many as 120 full-time positions eliminated by June 30, Sarno warned.
Several councilors, including Michael A. Fenton and Timothy C. Allen, said Tuesday that the city had lost opportunities to save money last year by imposing furloughs.
Councilor Timothy J. Rooke also said the wage freezes and furloughs would be unnecessary if the city had exercised more fiscal discipline in the past year.
In particular, two decisions – moving the School Department offices from State Street to the former federal building on Main Street and not seeking bids on city health insurance plan – cost the city about $14 million.
By not purchasing a $60,000 license plate recognition system, the city forfeited about $4 million in extra revenue, Rooke said. The system helps identify unpaid parking tickets and excise taxes.
“There are consequences for putting off difficult decisions, and we’re paying for them now,” he said.
City Councilor James J. Ferrera III also said Sarno’s budget-balancing plan underscores the need for spending and hiring freezes he proposed in 2008 and 2009.
Ferrera said other public and private sector institutions, including U.S. Postal Service, Baystate Medical Center and Hampden District Attorney’s office, have curbed hiring; by contrast, the city hired 171 employees since April 2010, Ferrera said.
“It’s ridiculous – we’ve been living on a credit card and it’s time to pay the bill,” he said.
