By Andrew Knittle
The Norman Transcript
NORMAN — Citing a massive budget shortfall, the city of Norman last Friday told 24 of its employees that June 3 will be their last day on the job, City Manager Steve Lewis confirmed Monday evening.
It also was proposed that 12 vacant positions, which are normally funded even if they aren’t filled at the time, will be eliminated. The Norman City Council will meet this evening to discuss further cuts and other possible solutions.
Henry Baskeyfield, president of the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees chapter, said he started receiving calls from his members Friday after city management gave them the news.
“Most of them were told that their jobs would be cut and they would be gone June 3,” said Baskeyfield, who represents non-uniformed city workers.
Baskeyfield said the city’s handling of the move, designed to address an ever-growing budget shortfall for the next fiscal year, wasn’t exactly proper.
“They’re not supposed to contact union members until they’ve contacted union leaders,” he said. “Friday was the first time I heard anything about it.”
City Manager Steve Lewis said most services provided by the city will go on as before, although some cost-saving measures may interfere down the road, such as furlough days (which will have to be negotiated with unions).
“Consequently, there will be some reduction in the convenience our citizens enjoy in accessing city facilities in person on those days,” Lewis said. “But online and phone-in options will remain available.”
Lewis also didn’t rule out more cuts if things don’t improve or worsen at the city.
“Sales tax revenues are the major source of revenue to the city’s general fund, but the concern that has forced me to propose reducing our workforce is the overall rate of total expenditures in excess of total available revenues,” Lewis said. “If overall expenditures continue to outpace revenues then further cost-saving and… revenue enhancement measures will have to be taken in the future.”
Baskeyfield said the projected budget shortfall for the next fiscal year, set to begin July 1, has ballooned to nearly $9 million. As recent as February — before the March 2 municipal elections (including the mayoral race) — the shortfall hovered at about $1 million.
“Once the elections were over, that started going up,” Baskeyfield said. “Go figure.”
Last month, Lewis said the city was facing a $6 million budget shortfall as he addressed the city’s employees in a letter, which warned of looming cuts and other changes to deal with slumping revenues. Just a few days before that the “moving target” was $4 million, according to Councilman Doug Cubberley.
“Management’s telling council, ‘this is what we need to do,’ so we’ll see what happens,” Baskeyfield said. “The way they do their budget and books, it’s hard to tell where the money’s coming from and where it’s going.”
Councilman Tom Kovach also remarked on the timing of the city’s announcement, saying he had hoped another solution could be found.
“I don’t know how the rest of the council feels about this, but we certainly need more options than what’s been given,” Kovach said. “There are other things we can look at.”
Kovach said early retirement, severance packages and furlough days are still possibilities.
“Something is going to happen, there’s no doubt,” he said. “I just hope we can find some other ways to work this out.”
Lewis said he expects the proposed job cuts to provide $1.7 million in annual savings, although that figure doesn’t include “accrued benefit payouts and unemployment compensation.” He said the city currently employs about 800 full time workers, who lumped together get paid just a hair under $50 million each year when benefits are included.
