[Durham INC] County & City responses to economic downturn

[Kelly Jarrett]

I understand the debt obligation and discretionary income issues--but 
the people making 20K have debt obligations as well--much more basic 
ones like rent and groceries. Salary comps with neighboring police & 
social service departments reveal that Durham does not have a history of 
paying competitive salaries to begin with, turning us into a training 
ground for surrounding areas. Talk about cutbacks understandably makes 
those on the lower ends of the salary and seniority ladders nervous as 
it is usually their jobs that are most vulnerable.

And respectfully, it is not just the higher paid folks who will assume 
more responsibilities: the caseloads of food stamp and medicaid 
eligibility workers (definitely not among the highly paid and already 
overloaded) will continue to balloon as the economic situation worsens. 
Domestic violence and child protective services cases are likely to 
rise, and if the state cuts funds for rape crisis and domestic violence 
programs demands for police intervention in these areas will increase 
even further. Drug and alcohol abuse will rise, along with demands for 
treatment, medical, and police involvement. Demand for animal control 
services will continue to rise. Property crimes and robberies are likely 
to continue to rise. EMT & county health services will be strained 
further as people lose medical insurance and rely on ERs for primary 
care. You get the picture. Many of the people who deal with the nuts and 
bolts of providing these services are on the front lines, in entry level 
and lower level positions--not high up the salary ladder. These workers 
who you are calling to "work harder and smarter" are already working 
hard and smart in physically and emotionally demanding jobs.

I'm not saying that some savings can't be attained through vacancies. 
They can. All I'm advocating is that other options be up for discussion.

Reyn Bowman wrote:
> They will probably do it with vacancies which mean the higher paid folks will assume even more responsibilities.  The goal would be to do no harm and the percentages below have only one flaw...they assume the higher the income, the more discretionary income and that is rarely the case until it gets to about $250,000.   Many of those people will have debt obligations and can't decelerate that rapidly.  There is also a retirement component.
>
> I think they have some very smart management folks at the County who have this well in hand.  Doing more with less, doesn't automatically mean a cut in services...but it does mean that people will need to work much harder and smarter and we need to keep them incented.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org] On Behalf Of Kelly Jarrett
> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 10:50 AM
> To: PAC2; inc-list at durhaminc.org
> Subject: [Durham INC] County & City responses to economic downturn
>
> I hear that the County is requesting its departments to cut their 
> operating budgets by 10%. The City is also contemplating cuts. Like most 
> of us, I am concerned about the implications of these cuts, especially 
> what they will mean for City & County employees as well as availability 
> of and access to services for Durham residents.
>
> I hope that job preservation will be the highest priority. As a job 
> preservation strategy, I suggest that budget cuts begin with salary 
> reductions starting at the top: 5% reductions of all salaries over 
> $50,000 a year; 10% reduction of salaries over $100,000; 15% reduction 
> of salaries over $150,000. This should provide some significant cost 
> savings, leave highly paid employees with adequate salaries to live on, 
> and preserve the jobs of  less well compensated employees--those such as 
> food stamp and medicaid workers, entry level social workers, and 
> front-line staff who are actually providing the services that are in 
> high demand during economic hard times.
>
> Kelly J.
>
>
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