Brandon Twp.- Township employees, like workers around the state and country, are finding themselves on the chopping block in a wretched economy.
As a Dec. 31 deadline to balance the budget bears down on township boardmembers, discussion on changes for employees is heating up. At the Nov. 2 board meeting, trustees and elected officials debated changes including a reduction of the workweek, paycuts, and the possibility of employees contributing more to their already reduced healthcare benefits. A discussion of the changing of four employees (one from each department? clerk, supervisor, treasurer and recreation) from full-time to part-time, was removed from the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, but is not off the table.
‘We’re looking at a shortfall of $277,000,? said Supervisor Kathy Thurman. ‘At this point, we’ve narrowed down our choices to reducing the work week, or reducing departments by a percentage.?
At Monday’s board meeting, a change to a 32-hour week or 36-hour week for employees was discussed. Currently, the cost of the average township employee including wages, benefits and FICA is $64,403.83 per year, or $30.96 per hour. The township has 16 full-time employees including the three elected officials. The total current expenditure per year on the wages, benefits, and FICA for the township staff is $1,024,888.43. A change to a 36-hour work week would equal a cost to the township of $60,532.43 per year per average employee, a savings of $50,328.10, with a loss of 52 service hours per week. A change to a 32-hour work week would equal a cost to the township per average employee of $56,661.05 per year, a savings of $100,656.19, with a loss of 104 service hours per week.
These cuts would mean either a 10 or 20 percent reduction in pay for each employee, and if the 32-hour work week is chosen, the township offices could be closed one day per week, although Treasurer Terry Beltramo said that would not work for his office, as the treasurer needs to be open for tax collection the majority of the year.
‘Budget discussions are going nowhere fast,? said Beltramo Tuesday. ‘I think we can handle a reduction to 36 hours, but we can’t go any less. I will have to make up the missing hours, but I’m here 10 hours a day anyway. I don’t think that anyone is willing to compromise from what I heard last night.?
Beltramo supports a budget plan proposed by Clerk Jeannie McCreery, which she has distributed to boardmembers. The plan, she said, features no employee overtime, no mileage reimbursement, no continuing education/seminars for employees, reduction in office supplies purchasing, a cutback on chloriding of township roads to two applications, as well as the 36-hour work week. McCreery said she estimates her plan would result in a $150,000 surplus for the township.
‘I went through the budget line by line, and cut out every little thing I thought we could,? she said. ‘New equipment, improvements to the building? they are non-essential at this time. Karen (McArthur, elections clerk) plans to retire at the end of the year, Mary (Kassuba, deputy supervisor) plans to retire in May. We’ll reevaluate the budget cuts for next year, but start earlier, I hope.?
One suggestion from Thurman that was adamantly opposed by McCreery, as well as Trustee Tom Stowell, was a possible reduction in employee healthcare or asking employees to contribute more to their plans if their hours are decreased.
‘You’d be hitting them with a double whammy,? McCreery said. ‘This place runs most days like a well-oiled machine, even though every four years we get new elected officials. Why would you shoot yourself in the foot? Don’t drive them away.?
Thurman said instead of a reduced workweek for all employees, what she would actually favor is a percentage reduction in the budget for each department, with department heads making the decision in how to make those cuts.
‘I don’t think reducing the work week is as cost effective compared to the amount of service hours lost,? Thurman said. ‘It’s more cost effective to reduce staff than reduce the work week… I think we’re overstaffed and we can do the work with reducing one full-time employee from each department to part-time.?
By reducing staff, Thurman said some of the other cuts being considered could be salvaged. Those include the clean-up of recyclable and non-recyclable items through Bedrock Express; chloride applications to roads; and a possible reduction of the desk officer position at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Brandon substation next year and in 2011, the elimination of two police officers.
A public hearing on the budget has not been set.