[Durham INC] County & City responses to economic downturn

[Melissa Rooney]

>>"All I'm advocating is that other options be up for discussion."

Couldn't agree more...

Melissa

Melissa Rooney
mmr121570 at yahoo.com

--- On Wed, 2/4/09, Kelly Jarrett <kjj1 at duke.edu> wrote:
From: Kelly Jarrett <kjj1 at duke.edu>
Subject: Re: [Durham INC] County & City responses to economic downturn
To: "Reyn Bowman" <Reyn at Durham-cvb.com>
Cc: "PAC2" <pac2 at yahoogroups.com>, "inc-list at durhaminc.org" <inc-list at durhaminc.org>
Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 11:25 AM

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.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Durham INC Mailing List
> list at durham-inc.org
> http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html
>   
_______________________________________________
Durham INC Mailing List
list at durham-inc.org
http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html



      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/mailman/private/inc-list/attachments/20090204/6c0d2b16/attachment.htm>