NEWS

Green Bay budget deal avoids firefighter cuts

Scott Cooper Williams
Press-Gazette Media

Property taxes in the city of Green Bay would increase more than $1 million next year under a budget deal that aims to avoid firefighter cuts currently on the table in union contract talks.

The Green Bay City Council is set scheduled to consider the budget today.

Mayor Jim Schmitt proposed eliminating six firefighter positions in a 2015 spending plan that totaled $105.4 million citywide, including an extra $500,000 in property tax collections.

But a City Council committee has recommended restoring the firefighter positions in a move that would boost spending and property taxes another $600,000 to maintain staffing levels in the Green Bay Metro Fire Department.

The mayor's proposal was based on an assumption that the city would prevail in contract negotiations that seek to eliminate six firefighters by changing how the fire department schedules employee vacations. The firefighters union is opposing the vacation change, which led some aldermen to fear that the mayor's budget would backfire and leave the city facing a midyear deficit.

Alderman Tom Sladek compared the situation to the city's 2012 budget and a $700,000 deficit that forced a hiring freeze and other adjustments after the police officers union refused concessions that were already built into that budget.

Sladek said he was displeased to see spending and property taxes pushed higher in the budget deal recently endorsed by a City Council committee.

But, he said: "You have to budget honestly. You have to budget in a way that isn't taking undue risks."

Schmitt said budgeting always is based on assumptions. He voiced confidence that the city ultimately will be able to make the adjustment in firefighter vacations, reducing how many can be on vacation at one time.

He likened the current arrangement to having the equivalent of six firefighters on vacation perpetually. So eliminating six positions would have no effect on public safety or service, he said.

"This is just better management of our assets," he said.

While cutting spending in the fire department and elsewhere, the mayor's proposal for 2015 would have raised spending more than $3 million with increased debt payments, employee pay raises, a new downtown bus route and other initiatives.

Schmitt proposed citywide property tax collections totaling of $54.1 million, which was an increase of $569,259 from this year. With a growing tax base, however, the mayor's budget would have lowered the property tax rate from $8.86 to $8.85 per $1,000 of property value.

Recommended changes endorsed on Nov. 4 by the City Council Joint Finance-Personnel Committee would increase total spending to $106 million and raise the tax rate by 10 cents, to $8.96.

The fire department's budget is proposed at $21.8 million, which includes funding for 183 firefighters, engineers and others in the Green Bay Professional Firefighters union.

The department provides services throughout Green Bay and Allouez.

Union representatives began contract negotiations with the city this summer, but have reached an impasse, largely on the issue of reducing the number of firefighters who could take vacation at the same time. City officials theorize that doing so would allow for fewer firefighters without affecting public safety. Six positions would be eliminated next year through attrition.

The union's current three-year contract expires Dec. 31.

Union President Chad Bronkhorst said firefighters oppose both the proposed change in vacation scheduling and the move to eliminate six firefighters. Bronkhorst said the Green Bay fire department already has lower staffing levels than some comparable cities.

He also said the union has lost 20 positions in recent years, and has agreed to many contract concessions such as increased pension costs for its members.

The move to tweak vacation scheduling and cut staff — and to budget for those changes before they are approved — was a disappointing break from past efforts on both sides to work cooperatively, Bronkhorst said.

"We've tried to work with them," he said. "This one is kind of a take-it-or-leave-it proposition."

City Council President Tom DeWane said he would oppose cutting firefighter positions no matter how the reduction was achieved. Eliminating six firefighters would risk reducing public safety, he said.

DeWane said he will continue examining the 200-page budget for possible avenues to cut spending and taxes elsewhere while maintaining staffing in the fire department.

"Now it's time to do the crunch work," he said. "I'm working on that night and day."

— swilliams@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter @pgscottwilliams.

On the Net

To see the city of Green Bay's full 2015 budget proposal, go to greenbaywi.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2015-Proposed-Budget.pdf.

If you go

The Green Bay City Council meets to consider the 2015 budget at 4 p.m. today at City Hall, 100 N. Jefferson St. The meeting is open to the public.

Correction: The City Council Joint Finance-Personnel Committee met Nov. 4 on the city budget proposal. The date was incorrect in the previous online version of this story.