Police response times and construction inspections could be delayed with a plan to force Bremerton city employees to take a day off a month through the end of 2010.
Another option for employees is to take a 4.6 percent pay cut as part of the plan to save $786,000. Departments will decide whether their employees will take monthly unpaid days off or a salary cut to ensure all positions are covered.
Mayor Patty Lent said negotiations with public employee unions are underway, and Lent said she has the authority to implement the plan, which would take effect May 1.
The furloughs, which will come on top of furloughs imposed last year, are a way to offset a $2.1 million budget deficit through the end of 2010.
Lent called the budget outlook “grim.”
Floyd May, president of the Bremerton Police Officers’ Guild, said reductions at the Bremerton Police Department could extend police response times for routine calls and follow-up investigations.
“I think any cuts would affect services,” May said.
The mandated furlough is more rigid than the voluntary furloughs requested by former Mayor Cary Bozeman, Lent said, who herself is taking a 4.6 percent cut from her $120,000 salary. The Department of Community Development was the only department to reduce its hours to 36 per week and a handful of layoffs in other departments followed.
With the department’s operating hours cut to four business days per week for the past year, Bremerton contractors and builders said they have since adjusted to the reduced hours, and will do so again if service reductions are extended to other departments.
“It takes a little bit longer to get an inspection, a little bit longer to obtain a permit,” said Art Castle, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Kitsap County. “It is a bit of a problem, but I understand that jurisdictions have to tighten their belts.”
At the same time the city has made cuts, demand for construction has decreased, Castle said.
“We’ve gotten used to making sure that we’re ordering permits and inspections way ahead of time,” said Steve Brett, president of D Lane Homes Co. in Bremerton.
With all city employees participating, the cut would save the city $786,000 this year, Finance Director Barbara Stephenson said.
This year’s city revenue projections were exceedingly optimistic, she added, including high predictions of sales tax and business and occupation tax income.
“The economy ended up much worse than I think anyone anticipated,” Stephenson said.
In addition to the furloughs, the city is examining spending on city services and its Equipment Rental and Reserve Fund, Stephenson said. The city also implemented a “justification process” that requires department directors to prove a need for a new hire when employees retire or depart, encouraging them to instead shift duties or delay the replacement of employees. Layoffs would be a last resort.
