January 30, 2009
Fosters
Rochester taypayer group offers suggestions to city officials to help cut costs
ROCHESTER— The Rochester Concerned Taxpayers Association is calling for the city’s elected officials to take a hard look at possible avenues that would lessen municipal spending.
This would include freezing all non-union employee wages, inviting unions back to the table to renegotiate contracts, and maybe even initiating “a reduction in force of non-essential & nonsafety personnel for both the City and School Department.”
In a news conference Monday afternoon at City Hall, the RCTA issued a statement explaining its members drew up a list of “constructive suggestions” to help reduce costs in the city — a list which was sent out to members of the City Council, School Board and Police Commission last Thursday.
” The “constructive suggestions” are meant to provide our elected officials with a kind reminder that section 43a of the Rochester City Charter (the tax cap amendment) paved the way for more effective long term planning that would result in a more streamlined and efficient local government,” according to the RCTA news release.
Among suggestions is studying a four- day workweek in appropriate city and school departments, drawing up a better energy conservation plan for the city and looking into an increased outsourcing of various city operations and services.
“This document is really a plea for our elected officials and people who make our budgets up to look at different, more effective ways of governing,” said RCTA vice-president Fred Leonard.
In such a tight economy, Leonard said it’s unreasonable to have residents whose own wages might be frozen in the private sector paying for raises for employees in the public sector via property taxes. Instead, he said, all non-union employees salaries should be frozen and the city should begin discussing contract renegotiations with multiple unions, as the RCTA’s document suggests.
“We want to provide basic services in the city, and I truly believe if we could get these unions to sit back down at the table, we could avoid having any layoffs or reductions in services,” he said.
The RCTA’s document also cites research suggesting savings of roughly 10 to 20 percent of the costs of performing some functions in house can be achieved via outsourcing those operations through public-private partnerships, though it does not provide guidance on which functions. The document does urge city officials to look further into outsourcing as means of reducing spending.
Leonard said at least a couple public official who received a copy of the RCTA’s “constructive suggestions” have responded to the document, saying Police Commissioner Lucien Levesque called him and the two had “a pretty good discussion” regarding saving costs in the Police Department, and that School Baord Chair Bob Watson said he’d be open to some of the suggestions offered by the RCTA.
However, Leonard said the RCTA has had no response from the City Council, and is thus urging residents to contact elected officials and urge them to form a committee to study the RCTA suggestions.
“The passage of the tax and spending cap by such a wide margin by the voters of Rochester was a clear indication that our government has to change what they spend and the way they spend it,” states an RCTA news release. “We hope that our elected leaders accept these suggestions and give them their full attention.”
The full list of the RCTA’s suggestions can be viewed on the organization’s Web site at www.rochestertaxpayers.org, under the link for “Documents”.