By JOSEPHINE MENDEZ
The Herald-Disptach
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — To deal with a nearly $5 million budget deficit, Mayor Steve Williams authorized reductions Thursday that will reduce police department staffing by 17 and the fire department staffing by seven.
(Photo by Lori Wolfe)
The layoffs from both departments mainly affect officers and firefighters hired within the past few months and will drop the police force to 99 officers and the fire department to 88 firefighters.
“It’s horrible; it’s the worst day for these young guys,” IAFF Local 289 President Ray Canafax said. “They quit jobs and came here to be Huntington firefighters, and two months in, they receive their walking papers.”
The police department dismissals included 11 officers – a temporary police officer and 10 probationary officers. In addition, six civilian employees in the department were laid off. They included three record clerks, an administrative assistant, an IT technician and a fleet coordinator.
Those probationary police officers were hired during separate ceremonies in June and January.
“I had to sit there with the chief of police and our administrative director and tell seven of my brothers . . . that they no longer had a job and watch them hand in their radio and their gun, and it’s gut-wrenching,” said Sgt. Brian Lucas, president of the Huntington Police FOP Goldstar Lodge No. 65.
Lucas said three of the probationary police officers were in the middle of training at the West Virginia State Police Academy, but those officers will be allowed to complete their training.
On Thursday, Williams also outlined other steps meant to reduce costs, including adjustments to the city’s health insurance plan and the elimination of the city’s street paving program this spring.
Even after implementing the layoffs and making other cuts, the city still faces a deficit of about $2.2 million, which is less than half of the city’s originally overall $4.8 million budget shortfall.
“What we are doing today is just the first step . . . what we are hoping is that the results of what we are doing today will put us in the position where we don’t have to come back to make any further adjustments,” Williams said during a press conference Thursday afternoon.
He was joined by Police Chief Joe Ciccarelli and interim Fire Chief Jan Rader.
In addition to cuts in the police department, three civilian positions from the police department will be reassigned.
Scott Lemley, crime statistics analyst with the Huntington Police Department, will be reassigned to the vacant position of executive director of the Department of Planning and Development, which is funded by Community Development Block Grant funds.
Two code enforcement personnel also will be reassigned to the Public Works Department and paid from the city’s trash/sanitation enterprise fund.
“These are difficult and trying times, but we’ll get through it, and we’re going to do that without compromising the safety of the community,” Ciccarelli said.
In order to maintain the department’s minimum staffing per shift of nine officers, Ciccarelli said officers will be pulled from the special investigations bureau and criminal investigation bureau.
“The investigative piece of it obviously will be prioritized for violent crime, and then as time permits those other lower priority . . . will be addressed as we can,” Ciccarelli said.
“We do have the ability of some grant-funded overtime that may allow us to continue to do some of the extra things we’ve been doing, like warrant sweeps and those sorts of things.”
Rader, who stepped in as interim chief a little over a month ago, said the cuts to the fire department will not result in the closure of any fire stations but will cause changes to their daily operations.
Rader said minimum staffing will be moved from 28 to 22 per shift, which could cause two of the department’s nine front line response vehicles to be taken out of service.
An additional engine will be sent to each working structure fire to ensure the safety of the firefighters and the citizens of Huntington, Rader said.
She said the department will continue to respond to medical calls, including overdoses.
In light of recent events, Williams also said he will not accept the $10,000 annual raise approved by City Council in December, according to a document provided by the city. His salary will remain at $75,000.
With the remaining $2.2 million deficit, Williams said the city will not be able to cut that down to zero by the end of the fiscal year, which is June 30.
“We are going to be managing our way out of this on into the next fiscal year,” he said. “There is no earthly way for us to eliminate this by July 1. We came to the conclusion early that in order for us to manage this, that we would have to manage our way out of it, not just cut our way out of it.”
Per state code, the city is allowed to end in a 3 percent casual deficit, which amounts to a little over $1 million. That deficit will need to be reduced to zero by the end of the 2018 fiscal year budget, which ends June 30, 2018.
Williams said the deficit is a combination of overspending in the police and fire departments totaling about $1.61 million as well as overages in the city’s fire and police pension contributions and increased insurance costs.
Williams has also authorized the following actions:
All hiring and nonessential spending is frozen until further notice.
All P-card purchases must have prior authorization of the finance director.
Implement other cost-saving measures including: reduction of overtime, elimination of HPD overtime for special events that are not essential to law enforcement mission, training associated with an expense canceled.
Reduce the capital improvement budget line in Public Works by $1.4 million. The spring paving program will be eliminated, but funding for pothole patching, sidewalk repairs, snow removal and other services will not be affected. Paving will resume in the fall.
The city’s health plan will be changed, effective April 1, 2017, to a more cost-effective benefit level that is more typical of private industry employer plans. The changes have been developed through the city’s Healthcare Task Force and have been discussed with the unions in negotiations. Some of the changes were taken from union proposals, while other changes have been part of the city’s proposals ($400,000 in projected savings this fiscal year).
Continue to be aggressive in collection of delinquent taxes and fees. The city created a multi-departmental team of employees in mid-2014 to focus on delinquent tax and fee collections. Since then, the team has collected $5,224,309 in delinquent taxes and fees, including $1,035,589 this fiscal year.
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