IS THIS WHAT YOU THINK OUR CITY LEADERS SHOULD DO TO DEAL WITH THE BUDGET CRISIS

Following is an article from the Sheboygan area newspaper talking about the Sheboygan City Council plans on dealing with their next city budget.

Is this what the city of Oshkosh should be doing ?? What do you think ? Please respond.





Posted July 13, 2007Panel: Reorganize city
Privatizing garbage collection and parks maintenance, early retirement packages among possibilities
By Troy Laack Sheboygan Press staff
Exploring the possibility of privatizing city garbage collection and parks maintenance, along with offering some Sheboygan city employees early retirement to free up money for new hires are among a special committee's recommendations it will take to the Common Council on Monday.

The six-member Special Table of Organization Committee spent several weeks on forming the recommendations, which would make sweeping changes to the city's table of organization with the goal of dealing with city government budget constraints.

The committee made its final recommendations Thursday.

Employees that could be offered early retirement packages under the committee's recommendations would be in the police, fire and public works departments. The savings, in turn, would be used to allow those departments to hire more people than they currently have.

The committee also recommends that the city introduce a wellness program into its healthcare plan, said Ald. Mark Hanna, committee chairman.

"We can eventually save $400,000 a year on healthcare," Hanna said. "I know from industry standards, if you invest in lifestyle programs attached to your health care program, you'll see recurring returns of four to seven times that investment."

A wellness program focuses on getting employees to change behaviors, such as quitting smoking and exercising more, Hanna said.

Committee member John Signer, human resources vice president for Sheboygan-based insurer Acuity, said the company has saved money through its wellness program and the city should experience similar results.

"At our company, we have 850 employees and our total health plan expenses are about a third less than the city's and I understand that you have about 500 employees," Signer said. "We've also had no cost share increase for employees for the last seven years."

The committee is recommending that information systems become a freestanding department. Currently, the city's six computer technicians are a part of the finance department.

The committee also is recommending the public works department look into leasing its vehicles rather than buying them.

Hanna said he believes all the recommendations will save the city money, but he didn't have a savings estimate except for the wellness program.

The recommendations are vastly different from changes the former council's Salaries and Grievances Committee sought in April. That committee recommended eliminating seven positions and hiring three new employees to save $325,000 in next year's budget.

The council voted April 4 to file recommendations from a yearlong study by that Salaries and Grievances Committee, which had been chaired by former Ald. Renee Suscha, but got new members appointed to it after the general election.

The Salaries and Grievances Committee recommended eliminating three of six information systems employees and cutting two community service officers from the police department.

The special committee not only doesn't want to downsize the police department, it wants additional patrol officers on the street to put more pressure on drug dealers and gangs, Hanna said.

"I think we've got 41 active gangs in the city and we need to be focused on them 24/7," Hanna said. "They are there as business units trying to distribute drugs in our community."

Interstate 43, which runs along the city's west end, is a drug pipeline into Sheboygan from Chicago and Milwaukee, Police Chief David Kirk said.

"Through proactive policing, we've aggressively addressed some of this, yet there always seems to be an unending concern," Kirk said. "You stop one and there seems to be another. It's a constant effort that has to be there."

The police department had considered eliminating units that deal with drugs and gangs because of budget limitations.

In May, Kirk announced he would suspend the community policing and street crimes units because the department's overtime budget was running out. On July 2, the council approved $175,000 for overtime pay to keep those units running through the end of the year.

The police department currently has 83 sworn officers, but if fully staffed, the department would have 91 sworn officers, which Kirk hopes to accomplish by the middle of next year, he said.
Reach Troy Laack at tlaack@sheboygan-press.com and 453-5133.