St. Louis poised to trim employee pay, lay off firefighters

From Stltoday.com, July 1

ST. LOUIS, MO – The city government outlined broad cuts to employee and firefighter pay Wednesday in the first public glimpse of its employee pay plan for the coming year.

The bill, which came before the Civil Service Commission Wednesday morning, aims to institute another round of employee furlough days, cut firefighter vacation and night-time pay and end a sick-leave credit system that gives employees added retirement dollars, among other things.

The cuts angered employees — especially firefighters — but were not deep enough to prevent some layoffs. The city is planning to cut about 70 existing jobs, and the Fire Department will likely have to chop two companies, or about two dozen firefighters, city staff said.

"The bottom line is if you lay off firemen, you close firehouses, people die," said firefighter Jeff Glorioso, secretary-treasurer of firefighters union Local 73, said at a commission hearing Wednesday night.

Resident Jeff Proctor said the talk of layoffs worried him.

"When you run these guys out, who's going to protect my family?" he asked.

The cuts come as the city seeks to bridge a $46 million gap between expenses and revenue in this coming year's budget. A key part of that is the pay plan, a 55-page document that lays out compensations, benefits and employment conditions for the city's 4,500 civil service workers.

There are dozens of cuts and trims expected this coming year. Some of the major changes:

• Adding five furlough days for all city employees — and 10 for managers — saving about $2.2 million this coming year, said Richard Frank, the city's director of personnel.

• Ending a sick-leave policy that allows employees to cash out half their accumulated sick days when they retire and use the other half to build up years of service and final pay, boosting their retirement checks. Frank said that should eventually save the city $400,000 a year.

• Cutting firefighters' night-time differential, which pays them for working at night, and costs the city an extra $1 million a year.

• Eliminating roughly 4.5 days off per firefighter, which would allow the department to cut some positions, first by retirement, and then through layoffs.

Firefighters, on average, make about $58,000 per year, according to city figures. Civil service employees average about $43,000. It is unclear by exactly how much those averages will dip this coming year, but one week's pay would be about $800 for the average city worker.

Chris Molitor, president of International Association of Firefighters, Local 73, disagreed with the city budget office, saying city firefighters' average salary is about $47,000 a year. He said each firefighter will lose about $1,600 and will have to work 112 hours more with no extra pay.

Frank said 10 of 11 employee unions came to tentative agreements with the city before the meeting. But the city could not come to terms with the firefighters union.

Firefighters said the city was unfairly targeting them.

"It's an all-out attack on the firefighters," said Tom McMahon, a fire captain stationed at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and 32-year veteran of the department.

"We're not going to work Christmas Day anymore, if they want equity," he told a commissioner.

But Jeff Rainford, Mayor Francis Slay's chief of staff, said firefighters are being treated as well as other employees, if not better. All other departments, he said, had to cut costs equal to the rise in employee benefits. Firefighters pensions have risen so dramatically — by $5.9 million for this coming budget — the city only asked the department to cut half of that increase.

"We're not blaming the firefighters," Rainford said. "But the taxpayers are not an ATM."

Barbara Geisman, city executive director of development, thanked all the employee groups for their efforts.

"We're balancing the city budget," she told the commission, "in a time of fiscal crisis."

The commission meets again this morning and is expected to pass the bill on to city aldermen for final approval in the coming weeks.