October 30, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CITY VSP REDUCES CITY STAFF, WILL SAVE ABOUT
$1.4 MILLION NEXT FISCAL YEAR
DECATUR - The City’s will reduce its staff by a total of 17 positions and save almost $1.4 million as a result of the Voluntary Severance Plan introduced earlier this year.
The number of eliminated city positions grows to 21 - or almost 4% of the city’s work force - when you add the four positions that were cut earlier this year during budget discussions. The savings are expected to be realized during the city’s next fiscal year which will begin May 1, 2010 as the VSP is not designed to result in savings in the year it is offered. Instead, the staff reductions will bring about significant savings in the upcoming fiscal year and beyond through the reduction or elimination of salaries and benefits.
A total of 41 city employees decided to take the VSP, a loss which will be addressed by the filling some positions and combining or leaving others vacant. The City appreciates the hard work and dedication of the employees who decided to take the plan and this will force government to do more with less while not compromising those city services that are vital to the community.
When the plan was introduced there was a promise that public safety would not be compromised as a result and this plan delivers on that promise.
The Police Department received 11 resignations and retirements through VSP, 9 of which were officers and two of which were emergency communications personnel. Four of the nine officers’ vacancies amount to what are known as overhire positions authorized in May 2008, meaning that they are positions that go above and beyond the actual authorized strength of the police department necessary to protecting city residents and are not always filled during a given year. Those overhire positions will not be filled at this time but the number of officers patrolling the streets will NOT be reduced.
The fire department had eight individuals who took the VSP and the city will fill five of those positions. As you may recall, the city council voted to add seven additional firefighters in May 2008 to deal with overtime costs, again numbers which go above and beyond normal staffing levels. With the filling of five positions, we are still significantly above normal staffing levels required for public safety and overtime continues to track at acceptable levels.
“Public safety will not be compromised as a result of this reorganization (and) we are not reducing the services that we provide to the public,” said City Manager Ryan McCrady. “ The public should know that we’re trying to provide the same services with fewer people here but I must tell you that the City of Decatur is staffed leaner than most cities I’ve seen.
“How do I know that? Because I’ve seen data that shows how much we spend per citizen to run the city and it’s much lower than than what you see in other cities.”
McCrady also noted that actions taken as a result of the VSP have no impact on the annual property tax levy as tax levy funds are not used for general fund operations.
Video from the press conference will be posted on cable tv channel 18 and on the city’s Facebook page today. For more information contact Billy Tyus at 424-2753.