ROCKLAND, Maine — Two city departments targeted for the largest budget cuts — the public library and recreation department — will be back on the city council’s front burner on Wednesday evening.
The city manager said that the labor contract with clerical employees, however, has thrown a monkey wrench in the option of reducing full-time employees to part-time as was being considered for the library and city hall.
The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. at city hall.
One option councilors were considering at a meeting earlier this month was to reduce library employees to part-time workers — at 25 hours per week, saving money on pay and benefits. The same was true at city hall as the administration looked at reducing hours but found they were barred under terms of the existing labor contract.
City Manager James Chaousis said at the council’s May 18 meeting the labor contract with the clerical union requires that employees work a full week which amounts to 37.5 hours.
Councilors questioned that clause in the contract. Councilor Valli Geiger said that there are millennials and older workers who do not want to work full-time. She said these people have incredible talents but the city can’t use them because of the full-time requirement.
Mayor Frank Isganitis said the alternative to cutting everyone’s hours would be to eliminate full-time positions.
Chaousis said he did not want to try to propose changing that full-time requirement in the current negotiations with labor unions because the city has already asked for a concession on benefits that could yield more significant long-term savings. The specific concession being sought has not been released by the city, however, a union source said that the city wants employees to switch to a different health care insurance that would be less expensive for the city but have higher deductibles for workers.
Preliminary adoption of the proposed 2015-2016 budget is scheduled for the first week of June. Final adoption is expected June 24. The new budget year begins July 1. Chaousis said that even after preliminary adoption, there are many moving parts and changes could be made leading up to the final vote.
The budget submitted by the city manager last month is $11.4 million, up from the current $10.9 million budget. The submitted 2015-2016 budget, however, does not include the scenario of cuts that called for $300,000, $600,000 or $1 million in reductions. Those potential cuts were requested by the council to see what the potential impacts would be as the city faces a steep tax hike.
The council has sought at least $100,000 in cuts at the library, saying the expenses are out of line for a community the size of Rockland.
Mayor Frank Isganitis said that the expenditures at the library would not necessarily have to be reduced if the department can find $100,000 in revenues from a source other than property taxes. Councilors have complained the library has become a regional one which has Rockland taxpayers subsidizing people who live outside the city. Councilor Valli Geiger twice said during the May 18 meeting that as many people from Owls Head have library cards as Rockland.
Statistics from the library, however, show a far different picture. There are 6,757 Rockland residents with library cards and 561 from Owls Head. Library Director Amy Levine said Friday that slightly less than 33 percent of the cards issued by the library are from people outside Rockland.
There is no charge for Rockland residents while non-residents pay $35 for an individual or family card. All students in the regional school district that Rockland is part of receive free library cards.
The council has also said the Rockland Public Library Endowment Association should contribute more to the library if they want the hours to remain the same. Endowment Association spokesman Brian Harden said the association contributes money every year and helped with the expansion of the library. He said the goal is to increase the principal enough to continue annual donations for perpetuity and not to deplete the funds to offset what the city cuts.
The association’s tax filing from 2013 showed it had a balance of $860,000. That year, the organization received revenues of $26,000 and contributed $19,000 to the library.
The city will also again discuss the fate of the recreation department. One scenario being considered is getting rid of the city staff and contracting with an outside organization to operate programs at the recreation building.
The city manager said earlier this month he has been contacted by MidCoast Recreation Center in Rockport about the possibility of sharing services.
Other cuts being considered is eliminating the in-house attorney, not filling the fire chief position for a second year, and not filling a vacant police patrol officer position.