City hoping voluntary retirement can avert layoffs
About one in five Colorado Springs city employees would be offered incentives to retire early under a proposal to help the city close a multimillion dollar budget gap next year.
Half of the estimated 400 employees who are eligible or will be eligible for retirement by Dec. 31 are sworn employees, including police officers, firefighters and high-ranking public safety personnel.
“Human Resources recommends a Voluntary Attrition Retirement Program for both civilian and sworn employees as the first option to reducing payroll costs,” HR Director Ann Crossey said in a report to City Manager Penelope Culbreth-Graft. “However, if there are not enough volunteers, we then recommend another round of layoffs.”
In the past two years, the city has laid off about 200 employees, leaving roughly 1,800 workers whose salaries are paid for through the general fund, including about 1,200 police officers and firefighters.
The early retirement program will be among the cost-saving strategies that Culbreth-Graft will present to City Council members Monday as she seeks their input and direction before submitting a 2010 budget proposal for their approval.
Crossey said the city expects about 25 to 30 employees to participate in the program.
“It would be one piece that might reduce the” budget shortfall, she said. “The voluntary attrition program, no agency that I know has ever used that to be the be-all, end-all. But we certainly would like to let our employees know that we tried that avenue before we just did layoffs.”
The city is grappling with a nearly $24 million budget shortfall next year, though about $9 million of that would be for employee raises, which the council isn’t expected to approve.
Under the proposed Voluntary Attrition Retirement Program, eligible employees would voluntarily retire, and the city would hold their position or a related position vacant. In return, employees would receive additional benefits, such as cash severance or extended health coverage, which they would not otherwise be entitled to receive from the city if they retired on their own.
Not every eligible employee would be allowed to participate in the program.
“The city would review volunteers’ positions to determine if positions can viably be kept vacant before the employee would be accepted into the program,” the report states.
Also on Monday, Culbreth-Graft will apparently make a case against pay cuts and furloughs, or mandatory unpaid time off, which at least one city councilman — Tom Gallagher — is advocating for until the economy improves.
“The use of temporary strategies to reduce payroll costs are not the best solution,” Crossey’s report states. “If we are directed to use permanent cost-saving strategies at a later date, implementing a furlough or pay reduction may just prolong the pain and make positive workplace morale harder to maintain.”
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