Council votes to lay off 12 workers

See commentary regarding inaccurate headline.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008 11:58 AM EST

POTTSTOWN — Borough Council Monday night made some, but not all, of the difficult budget decisions it faces, the most significant being a split vote to lay off 12 employees.If no other changes are made, the budget, as it stands now, would drive a 19 percent tax increase in 2009.With Councilwoman Maureen Allen absent Monday night, the deciding vote on the layoffs fell to Mayor Sharon Valentine-Thomas, who votes on council only to break a tie.Joining the mayor in voting to eliminate the positions were council President David Garner, Vice President Greg Berry and Councilman Stephen Toroney.

Council was unable to make a decision on two other controversial aspects of the administration's budget proposal — the elimination of the economic development director position and a 25 percent cut in funding to the borough's four fire companies — because no one was willing to second motions for either action.Berry made both motions, but to Garner's visible frustration, none of the other members of council was willing to give either motion a second. Thus, neither matter could be brought to the floor for a vote."I am a little frustrated," Garner told council members. He added that "I am not voting for a 19 percent tax increase.""Taxes were raised 25 percent two years ago and 9 percent last year. We need to do better," Garner said. "The reality is revenues in the borough are declining, and they are declining because the taxes keep going up."He aimed his frustration at the council's failure to make a vote on the economic development position."With a declining tax base and the economy the way it is, keeping in $180,000 to pay for economic development is not advantageous for our community," he said."Everywhere else, they are cutting positions; we don't have the luxury of keeping everyone intact."Prior to voting to proceed with the layoffs, Berry reminded the members of council that they are elected not to represent the borough's employees, but the taxpayers."We represent and answer to the taxpayers and only the taxpayers of Pottstown," he said."Do I think 19 percent is something this town can take? I'm not sure," said Assistant Manager Jason Bobst, who with consultant and finance director Timothea Kirchner had made the case for the cuts."What I am sure of is we're going to be in the same situation next year if we don't take action now," Bobst said. "Just since we started this process, we've lost $8 million in property value, and it's going to continue to slide and we're trying to use this process to dig our feet into the sand and start to push back."Prior to the vote, Karen Lewandowski, who chairs the Pottstown unit of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, informed council that the union members "have presented council with an offer of a wage freeze to their current contract." She said the wage freeze would save the borough about $111,648.It is unclear if the matter was given consideration by council; although, the members did meet in a closed-door executive session to discuss, among other things, contract matters.When the matter was raised during the meeting, Garner dismissed it saying, "There's nothing there."Last week, Lewandowski told the council that as much as $300,000 in additional revenue could be obtained by charging a 10 percent late fee to septic haulers who are behind on their payments for taking septage to the sewer plant for treatment.Monday night, Bobst said the borough is moving to implement a percent fee as a penalty, but that care must be taken."It's difficult to build a budget on outstanding debt," said Bobst. "To some extent, we have to accept this as being part of the business we're in. That's why we only budget on an assumption of collecting 93 percent of all taxes owed.""We tried implementing fines a few years ago and as soon as we brought the hammer down, the hauler declared bankruptcy and we didn't see a dime, so we could be hurt in the long run," said Brent Wagner, the superintendent at the sewage treatment plant.Lewandowski was not the only union member to address the council. Code Enforcement Officer Dave Borzick, recognizing that the task before council is "a difficult one," urged them to "get all the facts, not just the information designed by a few individuals with their own agendas."He pointed out that the money-saving ideas the union has recently provided "have been ignored before and I would wonder why you would only be taking advice from the very individuals that have allowed these situations to occur over three years. It seems like more smoke and mirrors."Borzick ended by quoting Adolf Hitler, saying, "Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it."Don Read also addressed the council, saying the problem Pottstown faces is "there are more tax users than there are taxpayers" and urged the members to "break the cycle.""I will tell you that the taxpayers have been brought to a boiling point, and I'm one of them," Read said. "When did a good paying job become an entitlement funded by the taxpayers?"Read, who is also a member of the Pottstown Borough Authority, told the council, "You do not represent labor, management, department heads, contractors or consultants. You represent the taxpayers."He found agreement with another member of the authority, Aram Ecker, who told the council, "Without exception, everyone is at their wits' end about how much it costs to live in Pottstown.""Back in the 1990s, we had 32,000 people in town and we had a payroll of 90 employees. Now we have 21,000 people in town and we have 180 employees. There is an exodus of people leaving Pottstown. You can't raise taxes 50 cents," he said.No budget decision will be final until Dec. 29, council's adjournment meeting, where the budget and tax rate will be officially adopted.Garner wants a few more decisions to be made."I am not satisfied this is a budget I'm ready to vote on," Garner said. "I am trying to turn over rocks because I think 19 percent is way out of line. I don't think we've done a real good job here."As a result, he convinced council to have another meeting to discuss the budget. It will be held Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 6 p.m. in borough hall. It was not immediately clear if the public will be allowed to speak.Despite Garner's comments, council did make some decisions. With a 3-2 vote, it decided to make use of $177,000 — left over from the $250,000 payment made by Waste Management in resolving the dispute over the treatment of landfill leachate — to help fill the gap in the general fund.Garner, who is the solicitor for the borough authority which was involved in obtaining the payment, abstained, and Toroney and Councilman Mark Gibson voted against the measure.Council also decided to take the administration's recommendations on delaying borrowing for a project to build new hangars at the airport and to continue three programs funded largely by grants but which require matching funds from the borough.

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