A crowd of 100 people filled the City of Pottsville's council chambers Monday night, many united with a message for the budget-crunching council - no layoffs in 2013.
But Tom Whitaker, 42, who has been a truck driver for the city for eight years, isn't sure that's possible.
Following a 40-minute meeting with city officials earlier Monday, Whitaker, who is president of Pottsville AFSCME Union 2835, left City Hall uncertain if he and union officials could prevent what seems like the inevitable.
"We did present several ideas. I thought our meeting was good. We'll see if the numbers match up with our ideas. Both sides are trying to avoid layoffs but that cloud is still hanging over us," Whitaker said.
The City of Pottsville plans to let five full-time workers go, according to the preliminary 2013 budget unveiled Nov. 29 - three police officers, a truck driver for the streets department and a tax office employee.
Inflation has a tight grip on the city's pocketbook. Anticipated expenses in 2013 will include a 7-percent increase in health care, a 21-percent increase in insurances and a 22.7-increase in pension contributions, City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said previously.
But changes can still be made to the $8,038,888 spending plan before its final approval, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Dec. 27.
Joseph P. Muldowney, who was Pottsville mayor from 1990 to 1998, was in the crowd at council's meeting Monday night.
"The mayor is the head of the police department in a third-class city and not a whole lot of these guys are the same guys who served under me, but I know the work that these guys do and I don't want to see cuts because I think they do a fine job and the safety of the city's going to be in jeopardy. They're our first line of defense. If we lose them, if we lose manpower in the street, the city's going to be an unsafe place," Muldowney said.
The city has 24 full-time officers. If the layoffs are approved Dec. 27, the police force will be reduced to 21 full-time officers.
AFSCME
City officials have been making efforts to avoid the pending layoff.
On Dec. 6, members of city council held an hourlong executive session with Pottsville Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 44 and scheduled a second FOP meeting for 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
On Monday morning, members of the council met with members of Local 2835 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Those who attended were Whitaker; Mike Fox, director of AFSCME District 89, Harrisburg; Pottsville Mayor John D.W. Reiley; Jo Waugh-Derk, staff representative from District 89, Harrisburg; Daniel E. Kelly, city superintendent of streets; Palamar; Ellen Mika, city treasurer; and city Councilman James T. Muldowney, who heads the committee for the streets department.
"As truck drivers, we do everything, whether it's change a light bulb or cut grass or pave streets or line painting," Whitaker said.
Asked if the truck driver's or the tax office worker's jobs could be saved, Fox didn't sound optimistic.
"There's a possibility, sure. It's possible we might get 16 inches of snow today, too. But we wouldn't have these discussions if we didn't think it was possible. Our goal, obviously, is to avoid someone being put on the streets and being without work," Fox said.
Reiley was among the city officials who met with AFSCME on Monday morning.
"It went good," Reiley said. "They came up with some proposed scenarios but we have to run the numbers."
"You know how these things go. You have to make sure all of your ideas work number-wise and that's where we're at now, making sure our ideas work and the numbers match up," Whitaker said.
Whitaker said he doubted AFSCME and city officials would meet again at the table before the budget is passed.
Councilman Muldowney, a second-cousin to the former mayor, said the council is still crunching numbers.
Show of support
On Monday night, a crowd of concerned citizens filled council chambers. It included city employees and their families and local officials like Pottsville Area Superintendent Jeffrey S. Zwiebel.
"I'm here to show the district support for the Pottsville police department. We work very closely with them and we're very appreciative for the work that they do," Zwiebel said.
The budget was not on council's agenda Monday night. During the 15-minute meeting, Palamar said the city may look into updating its zoning ordinance in 2013 while continuing its fight against blight.
Actions the board took included:
- Reappointing three people to each serve three years on the Lasting Legacy for the City of Pottsville Board of Directors - Debbie Yuengling Ferhat, Kim Murphy and Kenneth Huebner.
- Appointed Zwiebel to serve on the Civil Service Commission for the City of Pottsville for a four-year term.
- Appointed Michael Wigoda to fill the unexpired term of Robert Oettle Jr. on the Planning Commission for the City of Pottsville, to expire Feb. 9, 2014.
- Gave the Schuylkill Transportation System permission to hang electronic operational signs from the rafters at Union Station at 300 S. Centre St.
- Agreed to borrow a tax anticipation loan from Sovereign Bank, which offered an interest rate of 1.63 percent, the lowest of five banks surveyed. The others and their interest rates were: M&T Bank, 2.28 percent; Union Bank & Trust Co., 1.99 percent; VIST Financial, 2.65 percent; and Miners Bank, 2.60 percent.
At the conclusion of regular business, Reiley opened the floor for the public portion.
"We have some visitors tonight. Does anyone wish to address council?" Reiley said.
There was 10 seconds of silence.
"Well," the mayor said, "does anyone around the table have anything they'd like to say before we have a motion to adjourn?"
Members of council wished the public happy holidays and there were no comments from the crowd.
Zwiebel said he was sure someone from the crowd would have stood up to say something.
"There was quite a crowd there. Yeah, I was kind of surprised about that," Zwiebel said after the meeting.
Councilman Muldowney wasn't too surprised.
"I believe that there's nothing to say at this point because we're kind of in negotiations with them. We're taking back and forth. They may not want to start saying something because they don't want to diminish what we've already accomplished and that's communications," he said.
Some people in the crowd shared their views after the meeting. Among them was Ann Marie Webber, Pottsville, mother of a full-time city police officer, Charles Webber.
She said she's been sharing her views about the situation with her Facebook community, and brought a hard copy of one of her posts to the meeting Monday night.
It stated: "I am a proud mother of a Pottsville City police officer. My son and his sister have been my life for the last 38 years. I accepted his career choice even though I worry about it. I know Pottsville is a very good city and has a smaller crime rate than other cities our size because of the Pottsville city police. I'm what you call a scanner mom because of him and his fellow police officers. I hear all the calls and sometimes they need to be in three places at once and it worries me that you have now decided to take more officers away from them."