Sep 30, 2008 6:07 pm US/Central
1,000 City Employees To Lose Jobs
Mayor Daley: City Faces Worst Budget Crisis In A Generation
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Mayor Richard M. Daley will eliminate 3,000 vacant positions and lay off 1,000 city employees -- 735 of them union members -- to solve Chicago's worst budget crisis in a generation, union leaders were told Monday.
Annual budget hearings begin in a few weeks at City Hall. Mayor Daley has ruled out tax increases to close a projected $420 million budget shortfall, making job cuts unavoidable.
"This is a huge crisis," Daley sad. "They're doing everything possible to stop the slippery slope going down, and nobody knows if they've hit bottom, yet."
The biggest hit will be felt by Laborers Union Local 1001, whose members are in line for 300 pink slips in the Streets and Sanitation Department.
That's likely to mean major changes in garbage collection, tree trimming and other housekeeping services. Possibilities range from lengthening the time between pickups — once-a-week now in most neighborhoods, twice-a-week in congested areas — to privatizing recycling and shrinking crew sizes.
"They put an average of 350 trucks out-a-day. To cut 300 bodies — they're probably gonna go to every other week pickup. That's probably the only way they can do it. Either that, or every 10 days," said Lou Phillips, business manager of Laborers Local 1001.
"You're gonna have to look at your garbage an extra three or four days — and I don't know when they'll be able to get to your bulk. It's gonna create a rodent problem. You might even see a difference in the Loop area, as clean as the Loop is. That's the showcase."
A top mayoral aide, who asked to remain anonymous, insisted that weekly pickups would be maintained. That likely means greater use of crews with one laborer on a truck, instead of two.
Phillips at the Laborers Local 1001 argues that instead of laying off city workers, the mayor should get rid of some of the private contractors he uses. The union claims that its members could do the work contractors are doing, and do it more cheaply. Sources in the mayor's office disagree.
Two proposals union leaders hope will help Mayor Daley change his mind are to have city and sanitation crews pick up the refuse from small business and small condos that is currently picked up by private companies; and to have each homeowner start paying $120 a year for garbage pickup.
"To have this happen is just devastating to their life," Phillips said.
Few homeowners, though, welcomed the idea of paying more for anything in these tough financial times.
The 1,000 layoffs are expected to save $100 million. They represent the biggest purge of Daley's nearly 20-year reign. Roughly 265 of those fired are expected to be middle-managers.
The 3,000 vacancies to be eliminated include: 329 sworn Chicago Police officers; 424 non-sworn police employees; 12 sworn firefighters, and 10 non-sworn fire employees.
Last month, Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe pointedly refused to rule out police and fire layoffs — even as homicides and other violent crime continue to rise — to close a $420 million budget gap over this year and next. But police officers and firefighters are not among those targeted for layoffs.
Meanwhile, all but six of Chicago's 50 aldermen plan to accept a 6.2 percent cost-of-living increase that will boost their annual salaries to $110,556 Jan. 1. Aldermen John Pope (10th); James Balcer (11th); Scott Waguespack (32nd); Tom Tunney (44th); Helen Shiller (46th), and Mary Ann Smith (48th) are the only aldermen to sign affidavits by a Sept. 15 deadline declaring their intention to forfeit the increase.
Forty-four aldermen declined to sign the affidavit from Budget Director Bennett Johnson, in part, because of the effect it would have on their pensions. Some were offended that Johnson even asked.
"I need to see more from the departments. I need to see more from the administration. I'm looking at new cars and other luxuries that people have. We need to get rid of those luxuries . . . before we balance the budget on the backs of working people — including the two-[ticket] boot rule as well as the aldermen," said Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th).
The mayor is scheduled to unveil his proposed 2009 budget on Oct. 15.
CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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