Published: November 08, 2009 07:52 pm      

Mayor defends wages, lack of furlough days

DANVILLE — A years ago, aldermen approved about $100,000 in increased salaries for several city employees — more than 6 percent raises for some non-union city employees.

Various reasons were given for the pay hikes: increased duties, years of experience, to be more competitive with other communities and based on population, etc.

Now, the city has laid off about 30 employees over the past couple years and is looking for at least $1.7 million to balance the city’s 2010-11 budget.

Mayor Scott Eisenhauer said he doesn’t regret the salary chart changes now that the country’s in a recession and the city continues to see high unemployment.

Eisenhauer said because the city’s population has gone down, wages will not be adjusted accordingly.

He said that’s why the city has lowered the number of employees by nearly 60 to 252 over the past six years.

“No, I don’t regret making our wages competitive with other communities, because it allows us the opportunity to bring highly qualified professionals into our work force who are capable of doing more in a shorter amount of time and thereby increasing significantly our productivity; and our ‘production per dollar’ costs are far lower than they have been in the past,” Eisenhauer said.

“We have a fantastic staff of very educated, qualified, experienced and dedicated men and women who, because of their abilities, are accomplishing more with fewer personnel and resources.

“This could not and would not have happened had we not raised the level and the expectations of our staff. Unfortunately, even with recent salary adjustments, we are still far below another governmental entity in the community, and constantly have to fight to keep upper level management from departing for vacant positions within that entity.”

Eisenhauer also notes that in most of the cases where salary adjustments have been made, additional duties were added.

“For the number of hours spent, the amount of work required, the level of service demanded and the responsibilities they have, a city employee is still an incredible bargain,” Eisenhauer said.

He adds that furlough days and having 10-hour, four-day work weeks have been considered, but the savings aren’t significant.

“We cannot limit the number of days our police or fire work, and that is the bulk of our personnel expenditures,” he said.

“There are very few dollars saved under a furlough scenario. Ten-hour days at four days a week don’t work either because of the same factors. Public safety (police and fire) is 75 percent of all personnel expenditures, so you are only saving on 25 percent of the personnel, and most of those personnel are taking furlough days every time we call them out in the middle of the night or on the weekend and they don’t get paid overtime because it is expected of them,” Eisenhauer said.

“We would save approximately $250 per employee for each furlough day, and there are approximately 60 personnel who would be ‘eligible’ to be furloughed,” he added.

Eisenhauer added that hours of work are a right of negotiation, “and we have discussed this in contract talks.”

Danville Public Works Director Doug Ahrens said furlough days also wouldn’t save money on all energy-consuming buildings.

The city currently doesn’t pay its utility bills at the public works facility, 1155 E. Voorhees St., under its agreement with Ameren. Ameren is leasing back a portion of the space for 15 years. The city will pay no gas or electricity bills for the building during that time.

Also, 10-hour work days would be difficult for public works employees who work outside.

“It’s difficult to be more productive in the dark,” Ahrens said.