Fri, May 16 2008
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By JESSICA KERMAN
ANDERSON — In an effort to save money, the Anderson City Council unanimously approved early retirement programs for city workers and firefighters.
This follows actions taken in April to provide a similar program for the Police Department. The police and fire department agreements stipulate that a person must have 25 years of service to those individual departments to be eligible. The municipal workers buyout program requires only 10 years of service, which makes them vested in the Public Employees Retirement Fund.
However, the program worries some administrators in the Fire Department.
Deputy chiefs Dave Cravens and Jerry Burmeister spoke Thursday night about their concerns regarding the buyout program. The two voiced the same opinions at the April meeting of the City Council.
“We’re below minimum staffing on trucks now,” Cravens said. “I’m concerned about where this will put us.”
Burmeister said a new hire takes up to a year to train for the field, and the buyout could put the department at risk of being more understaffed than it already is.
“I have concerns for the summer with manpower issues,” Burmeister said. “I applaud the city on what they’re trying to do.”
With more than $6 million being cut from the city’s budget in the next two years because of the property tax reform act that the Indiana General Assembly passed this year, funds for employment will be scarce.
“But I also have concerns for the public,” Burmeister said.
Cravens said he was told the city would replace the men who choose to participate in the early buyout program, “but I know that might not happen,” he said.
If the department loses too many people, it could be forced to close a station, he said.
Councilman Rick Muir, D-at large, said he understood the men’s concerns.
“My own personal view is, I understand your concerns and fears,” he said. “As a councilman, I will be supporting measures to make up losses in revenues.”
Those measures could include the addition of a local option income tax.
The buyout program for the firefighters and city workers includes a clause that forbids people who participate in the program to be hired again by the city.
“We already have that going on,” Councilwoman Donna Davis, D-2nd District, said. “And now they’re asking for raises.”
The agreement with the Police Department does not include the same clause.
Jim Steele, who stood in place of the controller on Thursday night, said the cost savings for the city was hard to determine because he was not sure how many people would go through the program. Cravens said he thought four or five people from his department would take it.
If four people who worked 25 years for the Fire Department retired through the program, the city would pay an initial $10,000 per retiree, Steele said. However, the cost depends on longevity and other factors, he said.
Steele said the city did not know how many municipal employees would apply for early retirement.
Other business Thursday by the Anderson City Council:
• The Anderson Preparatory Academy and Quad Building LLC requested that the former Twenty-fifth Street Elementary School be rezoned back to a zone for a school so the academy, which will be a charter school, could locate there. The request passed the first two readings.
Rick Muir, D-at large, and Mike Welch, R-1st District, voted against the rezoning. Muir is the president of the Anderson Federation of Teachers, which serves teachers from Anderson Community Schools. Welch teaches for ACS.
• The council unanimously approved the issuance of two series of electric utility revenue bonds totaling $5,895,000 to repay loans made to Municipal Light and Power from the Anderson Redevelopment Commission and the other city utilities. The bonds are incorporated into the 10.61 percent increase the power utility has requested from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
• The council unanimously approved a temporary loan of $2.75 million from the TIF levy and the Certified Technology Park funds to the city of Anderson. The money was necessary because the city will receive tax payments late again this year because the assessment has not been approved.
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