By Thomas J. Sheeran, The Associated Press
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Some of Cleveland’s police facing layoffs in a budget-balancing move have begun looking for other jobs, while firefighters still on duty after cutbacks may face greater risks, a union leader said.
Unions representing Cleveland’s police, firefighters and paramedics were summoned to City Hall on Monday for talks on ways to limit more than 700 job cuts announced by Mayor Jane Campbell. The cuts could come within a month.
If a projected $61 million deficit for next year isn’t avoided, the city could face having the state control Cleveland’s finances, Campbell said.
“I will not let the city of Cleveland collapse. I will not give up the management of the city of Cleveland to the state of Ohio,” she said.
Ohio’s local government budget oversight law, enacted in 1979 in response to Cleveland’s default, gives the state supervision of a city’s finances under some deficit circumstances.
The cuts include 263 of 1,817 police officers, or 15 percent, 150 of 992 firefighters, or 15 percent, and 21 of 231 paramedics, or 7 percent.
Other cuts include leaving 300 vacancies unfilled and eliminating more than 300 seasonal positions. The city now employs nearly 5,900 workers.
Darrell Deerberg, assistant in charge of the Secret Service in northern Ohio, said he talked to about eight Cleveland police officers during a weekend job fair.
While anyone seeking a Secret Service job must go through a stringent application process, “Certainly the (Cleveland police) experience is a benefit to us and to them,” Deerberg said Monday.
Firefighters left to staff trimmed-down firehouse crews after pending layoffs may be at greater risk, said Bob Fisher, president of the union representing firefighters.
“We’re at bare-bones numbers right now. Any kind of cut in safety force is going to impact the safety of the citizens,” said Fisher. He predicted projected firefighter layoffs would increase fire fatalities.
The current pending deficit is the result of reduced state and federal aid, private job cuts that led to less city income taxes, higher city health care costs and negotiated city employee pay and benefit hikes, Campbell said.
Elsewhere, Columbus workers have been asked to take three unpaid days off to avert layoffs, and its leaders made drastic cuts to some areas of its budget, such as the Health Department, to keep things balanced.
In Toledo, a $10 million shortfall will be erased by furloughing city workers for 10 days, raiding a rainy day fund and cutting about 60 jobs.
Akron’s proposed 2004 budget avoids cuts and increases $9 million to $417 million, an increase city leaders attribute to projected higher property and income tax collections.