NBC 4 Investigates: Reducing Salaries To Avoid City Layoffs?
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Reducing Salaries?
Could the city avoid the layoffs by reducing salaries?COLUMBUS, Ohio—In less than a week, Columbus voters will vote: more taxes or fewer city services?
The half-percent income tax hike would cost you an extra $50 each year for every $10,000 a year in salary.
Mayor Michael Coleman and other city leaders have said that’s what it may take to save the jobs of hundreds of police officers and firefighters.
But could the city avoid the layoffs by reducing salaries?
They put themselves in harm’s way each day and for many, police officers and firefighters can never be paid enough.
“When they put their lives on the line for our community, I think they should get as much as they can get,“ said Pat Rader, an area resident.
But not all Columbus residents are as generous.
“For a veteran officer, I’d say $55,000 a year would be good for him,“ said Troy Foster, an area resident.
The average pay for a Columbus police officer or firefighter is more than $63,000 per year—before healthcare and retirement benefits.
The conservative-leaning Buckeye Institute said that in 2008, 1,766 police and fire employees made more than $75,000 in total compensation.
Two-hundred-seventy-one police and fire employees earned more than six figures, making more than $100,000.
“I think they’re getting paid too much,“ said Adam Piccenti, an area resident.
“I think that’s too much,“ Foster said.
“I think that’s something that the average person doesn’t realize—how much money is really going into these salaries,“ said Lynn Walsh, of The Buckeye Institute.
A 2007 salary study by police compensation consultants http://www.PolicePay.net found that over a 30-year career, a Columbus police officer would average more money than officers in Ohio’s other major cities: $5,000 more than Toledo, $8,000 more than Cincinnati, $10,000 more than Dayton and roughly $17,000 more than Akron and Cleveland.
“I can tell you right now, myself and the deputy chiefs have all taken a pay cut this year because we have five furlough days. The rest of that is all contractual. Those are negotiated benefits with the Fraternal Order of Police and the City of Columbus,“ said Columbus Police Chief Walter Distelzweig.
“Maybe it’s time to make some sacrifices,“ Walsh said.
Walsh points to the median household income in Columbus for comparison.
In 2007, a city economic advisory committee pegged the median household income at just more than $42,000.
The average salary for civilian city employees is $3,000 more.
Inside the mayor’s office, the ten highest-paid employees combined to collect more than $1 million in pay in 2008—each earning more than $75,000. That includes the mayor’s salary of $158,302—which is more than the average sale price of a Central Ohio home in April.
“People are paid according to their level of experience and sometimes when you’re competing with the private sector to run a $1.2 billion operation, you need to get people that know what they’re doing,“ Coleman said.
Coleman tells residents who earn far less than the average city employee but are being asked to increase their own income tax that the city is aggressively working to put salaries and benefits in line with the market over the next ten years.
Coleman, who dismisses The Buckeye Institute’s views as partisan attacks, hopes voters heading to the polls Tuesday are patient in seeing results.
“As you know, they’re contracts. It’s not going to happen overnight,“ Coleman said. “(Salaries) have already gone down 2 percent this year. We’ve had hundreds of layoffs. We’ve had furloughs.“
POLICE, FIRE REPRESENTATIVES RESPOND TO SALARY REPORT
Police officers are speaking out about their salaries and the median household income in Columbus.
The average pay for a city police officer or firefighter is more than $63,000 each year—before benefits.
Police pay is above Ohio’s other major cities, but the heads of both the police and firefighters unions said those numbers don’t tell the entire story.
Columbus police officers may average a higher pay over their careers than counterparts in Cleveland or Dayton, but Fraternal Order of Police local chapter President Jim Gilbert argues a better comparison is the suburbs.
“Columbus police officers are not even in the top ten in Franklin County as far as top pay for police,“ Gilbert said.
Gilbert said Columbus officers rank 11th for locally for top pay—behind cities like Gahanna, Upper Arlington and Worthington.
Those figures, though, don’t include overtime for emergencies and court appearances—an area that Gilbert acknowledges makes a big difference—helping more than 900 Columbus Division of Police employees earn more than $75,000 last year.
“There’s no way getting around it. When you need a police officer at 11 a.m. who just got off at 6 a.m. to be in uniform and in court, ready to testify,“ Gilbert said.
Firefighter Union President Jack Reall made a similar case for firefighters, saying they voluntarily gave up a 4 percent pay increase in 2009 and are forced to work overtime due to being short-staffed.
More than 800 fire division employees made more than $75,000 last year. Reall also said comparing city workers’ income to the median household income isn’t a fair comparison, because it includes families who are unemployed.
Gilbert said police officers haven’t had a pay raise since 2007 and in 2008, three officers were shot while on duty and one officer was stabbed in the face.
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Reader Reactions
I am really getting tired of all the missed facts here. WE are ALL at fault about this tax issue. When times were going good, we went on with life. We did not question city council, the mayor, or anyone else who spent, or threw money everywhere. Now we have had to encounter increases in just about everthing we use, or need. Reality is setting in. I am not asking you to vote either for, or aginist, and it is not just a police, or fire issue. It is all city services that will be effected. I want to keep what services we have built up to because I feel like I have earned them. Everyone just please look at the overall picture, and lets not be afraid to ask the tough question from the people we elect to these offices. Hold them accountable, or your vote will count!
The fact of the matter is this, Mayor
Coleman and the Columbus City Council
have spent the City of Columbus into an ABYSS!! There were articles published
in the Columbus Dispatch showing that
as REVENUE’S were on the DECLINE here in
Columbus, Mayor Coleman and the City Council spending continued to RISE!!
City Auditor Hugh Dorian stated the same thing in an on camera interview
just a few weeks ago, over spending
the last 7 of 9 years while REVENUE’S
were on the decline put the City of
Columbus in this FINANCIAL ABYSS!!
So now Mayor Michael Coleman and
Columbus City Council want the citizens
of Columbus and NON-Citizens of Columbus
to DIG them out! Even with the income
tax increase Columbus still face’s a
DEFICIT of about $20 Million for 2010.
I will be voting NO!
These benefits that the police and fire get are considered hazard pay every where else in the free world. Keep in mind every cop and firemen also pays this 1/2% tax. The mayor has made us his scape goat. The civil servants of this fair city are carrying all of the mistakes of the mayor and city council. Is issue one the right thing, I don’t know? But I want to see essential services stay the way they are.
FtheMedia maybe you could do more like take a pay cut not just no RAISE. Police union could sign a contract any time, what are they waiting on? Could it be the results of issue 1? If this was a Federal or State tax that was being voted on, I think most Columbus City employees would vote no and feel like they are taxed enough. City workers only want this to pass because it beneifts them.
Mr. Robert thanks for your 2 cents. Re-read some old dispatch articles, the fire dept. has already given up a raise which was supposed to keep us from being laid off! CPD has been working with out a contract and there for have gotten no raises either. So we HAVE already taken one for the team. Check your facts…
Are police and fire employees paid to much? I don’t know. However I keep hear from some of the post’s that they run towards danger when everyone else runs away, but you mention a pay cut or paying for their own retirement and they run the other way. Some police officers and fireman make 10-15 dollars per hour to do the same job. Everyone want to make as much as they can, but if the money is not there then either take a cut or lay off some co-workers. The City wants the tax payers to give the city and their workers more money so they will not have to suffer, even though almost all private sector working are hurting with pay cuts or job losses. The State of Ohio is short on money, did they request a tax increase, no they made cuts, had workers give up 14 days of pay, and some State workers did lose their jobs. In the end I will be voting no for issue 1. The City has some fat they can cut without making the tax payers hurt even more than they are.
I’ve read all the posts from city employees, police and firefighters. I don’t think anyone should be laid off! The problem is the exorbitant spending for projects that are not affordable at this time. However, a small cut would not be any different then the rest of the public employees have had to take. Some of you city employees had to take days off, State employees had to take 80 hours off for two years in a row, plus they lost their personal leave. Most of the state departments are running on severely cut staffing levels. As far as the dangers and responsibilities of your jobs. Thank you for your service, but you chose your jobs. You are not the only ones who experience bodily fluids being hurled at you in every way possible, have you ever followed a nurse? They have to pay thousands of dollars and spend years in school for the privilege. How about corrections officers? Have you ever spent a shift with one of them, surrounded by hundreds of the offenders police remove from the street! The same ones who hurled bodily fluids at police officers. They don’t make as much as Columbus police officers, except when they are forced to work inhumanly intolerable amounts of overtime. Then they get their names in the paper for abusing state funds for overtime. Channel 4, how about investigating some of the contractors getting their palms greased for all the overpaid projects city officials approved. Whose friends or relative are they? Who are the workers? Legal citizens or illegal aliens? And how much do they actually get paid and how much of that money is taxed?
A partisan attack? The Buckeye Institute’s reporting of facts is hardly an attack, partisan or otherwise! If you can’t stand the heat, Mike, get out of the kitchen!
Per the city’s 2008 payroll, it employed 9,911 people at an average salary of $46,943. Including citywide overtime and “other” payments, average compensation totals $53,540 per employee or, 27% above the Columbus median income.
“We haven’t had a income tax increase in 27 years” is the city’s justification for seeking this tax hike. That is akin to saying “I haven’t had a new car in 10 years and so, I deserve one now.“ Absolute rubbish.
Coleman’s administration hasn’t balanced even one budget in his nine year tenure. Given this, why should Columbus taxpayers believe him when he says “the city is aggressively working to salaries and benefits in line with the market over the next ten years”?
Why wasn’t this being done already during the past nine years?!
The fact is that Coleman, et al, have failed miserably to rein-in escalting costs—primarily outrageous employee retirement and healthcare benefits—and have always spent more than they take in. It’s time to stop this nonsense and vote NO on August 4th!!
Since Patrick Preston will not investigate other ways the city could make money instead of raising taxes, call Nancy Weidman @645-6908 and ask for a summary of all tax and non-tax cases she has in her dept.i.e. the number and amount of outstanding cases vs. how much her dept. actually collects! There is a gold mine sitting in claims that should be collected vs. a tax hike!
The problem is not what we pay for police and fire. The problem is our mayor’s mismanagement of city funds.
And for him to use the police and firemen as a stick to crack the taxpayer’s head with is repulsive. The economy sucks and I still work but cannot afford any more taxes so I’m voting no. Just for an example of how the city spends out money. Just a couple of days ago I seen a street cleaner drive down our neighborhood street. Now it would seem to me that if our city is short on money we would use that money for more important things!!
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