City reaches agreement with CSEA

The Civil Service Employees Association reached an agreement with the city on Friday after union members agreed to a number of concessions that will avert the layoffs of 38 full-time workers.

CSEA President John Mooney said that 195 union members voted in favor of concessions that include a wage freeze for the coming fiscal year; no uniform allowance for the next two years, a two-year lag payroll and other concessions. In exchange, the city has agreed to no layoffs during the next two fiscal years. Twenty-two members opposed the deal, Mooney said.

“The membership felt it was a fair deal, and felt that it was our time to help the city in a fiscal crisis, just as we did during the hurricane last year,” Mooney said.

The agreement with the city means that 38 full-time employees will keep their jobs, after they were notified last week that they would be laid off come July 1.

That notice came after the city moved forward with a “first round” of layoffs of 67 employees last month — including 20 full-time CSEA workers and five firefighters — as officials contend with a projected $10.2 million deficit and attempted to craft a balanced budget for fiscal 2012-13 by June 30. City Manager Jack Schnirman said that the concessions are expected to save the city nearly $2.5 million this year, with additional savings next year.

“It means that the city, with the hard work of our labor partners, meets our savings target and we have a balanced budget going forward,” Schnirman said. “This completes the budget process — we now know with certainty what our budget looks like as of July 1, and it is a much improved financial picture of the city going forward, and we’re now officially on the road to financial recovery. We’re happy that 38 workers will be coming back to work and help make the city a great place to live.”

The city also cut 42 part-time employees and removed 69 “inactive” part-time workers from the payroll. The layoffs affected a number of departments, including public works, sanitation and beach maintenance

Schnirman said that the first round of layoffs, which saved the city approximately $2 million, were “unavoidable” because the previous administration did not budget for those positions.