The vote occurs as Mayor Sarno proposes wage freeze and furloughs and possibility of layoffs.
The Springfield City Council will meet on Monday to consider extending the annual $75 trash fee into the next fiscal year.SPRINGFIELD – The City Council on Monday will consider extending the trash fee beyond June 30, seen by some councilors as crucial revenue for a city facing increased expenses and reduced state aid.
Council Finance Committee Chairman Michael A. Fenton said Friday he expects the trash fee ordinance will pass and the $75 annual fee will continue next fiscal year. It was slated to expire June 30.
The special meeting is at 4:30 p.m., at City Hall.
The council will also consider approving a home rule bill to allow plans for a Vintage Grand Prix Auto Racing event in Springfield scheduled July 22-24. The bill will also need approval from the state Legislature and governor.
The trash fee would generate an estimated $3 million in revenue, and partially covers the cost of trash collection and disposal, officials said. Some councilors have objected to the fee as being an added tax on homeowners during difficult times.
Even if the trash fee is extended, the city would face a budget gap estimated at $5.4 million next fiscal year, according to Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and his finance team.
Fenton said he agrees with Finance Department officials who said Friday that the budget process is “fluid” and prone to change.
“But the reality is that if the mayor wants to make up $5.4 million, he’s got to look at public safety (cuts),” Fenton said. “That is where most of the money is.”
Sarno is asking the city’s 1,500 municipal employees, including police and firefighters, to accept a wage freeze and a dozen furlough days next fiscal year, which begins July 1, to close the budget gap. The proposed wage freeze and furloughs would affect unionized and non-unionized workers.
Otherwise, basic services will be reduced and as many as 120 municipal employees would need to be laid off, Sarno said.
Council President Jose F. Tosado, who recently announced his candidacy for mayor, said the plan presented by the mayor is the result of poor management.
“The way to prevent a budget crisis is to control spending over the course of a budget year,” Tosado said in a prepared release.
Tosado said the mayor hired hundreds of employees and promoted hundreds more.
Sarno said he has filled essential jobs, including vacancies in public safety and grant-funded positions.
The city has a $533.9 million budget this year, including $223.9 million for municipal expenses and a $310 million school budget. The School Committee oversees the school budget and will consider its own steps for a balanced budget, officials said.
School Committee member Antonette Pepe, who plans to officially announce her candidacy for mayor Tuesday, asked during a council Finance Committee meeting Friday if police might consider sacrificing their Quinn Bill education incentive pay for one year to help prevent police layoffs. Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet said he would not speak for the union.
At the same meeting, supervisors for the police, fire and public works departments warned that layoffs or furloughs would cause great harm to staffing and city services.
Police and fire supervisors said layoffs would jeopardize newly hired firefighters and a police academy class graduating next month.
Fenton said it would be terrible to lose any of those newly trained officers and firefighters.
Public Works Director Allan Chwalek said his department has already had severe reductions in its workforce from budget cuts in past years, and cannot sustain additional losses without major reductions in public work services such as paving, sweeping and winter cleanup.