Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

No layoffs, Port Richey council says

The city considered a lower tax rate that would have forced city employee layoffs.

By CAMILLE C. SPENCER
Published August 17, 2006

PORT RICHEY - City Council members are sending a message to city employees fearing unemployment: There won't be any layoffs.

Reached in separate interviews Wednesday, two council members said they plan to support a tax rate that won't require any layoffs. Previously the city had considered an even lower tax rate that would have forced the layoffs of 10 employees.

"We are all in agreement that no staff positions will be cut," council member Phyllis Grae said Wednesday.

Until a July 18 budget workshop, the city's proposed $12.4-million budget assumed the tax rate would decrease from 5.82 to 4.7 mills without any layoffs. Then Mayor Mark Abbott asked City Manager Jerry Calhoun to lower the city's millage rate to 4.32 mills, a cut that Calhoun said would require layoffs.

A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable property.

"We pretty much have decided on the 4.7 (millage rate) because that's what we're comfortable with," Grae said. "There were never cuts intended."

While the city's department heads are continuing to look for ways to save money, council member Dale Massad said lowering the millage rate at the expense of city employees isn't worth it.

"The 4.7 is where we are at and where we will probably stay," he said. "If somebody comes up with innovative ways to go further (lower), good. What it ends up (doing) is losing a job or two, and we didn't feel like that was the way we wanted to go."

Abbott and council member Steven O'Neill didn't return calls for comment Wednesday. Council member Nancy Britton refused to comment.

Fearing layoffs, about 15 city workers attended a budget workshop and City Council meeting Aug. 8.

Final budget hearings will be at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 7 and 21.

In the midst of budget talks, the city's 22 employees, represented by the Communications Workers of America, are negotiating their contract with Calhoun. The current contract expires Sept. 30.

City workers are asking Calhoun for a two-year contract with a 6 percent raise, said union president Stephen Sarnoff.

One of those workers is public works crewman Bryan Tortarelli, who began working for the city in November. Tortarelli, 38, is married with two children. As a side job, he does pest control.

While he hopes the City Council approves the 4.7 millage rate, he's made a few changes in his personal life in case he loses his job.

"Over the last few months, partly because of the job issue and the economy, we've cut back on eating out, we buy things on sale, turn the sprinklers off and I'm doing oil changes myself," he said. "As a union member, if this (layoffs) were to happen, I'm sure I could call Sarnoff to get a job ... but nothing is set in stone."

[Last modified August 17, 2006, 06:34:22]