Council continues budget battle

The budget-balancing job of the Spokane City Council didn’t get any easier Monday.

Council members heard details of a proposed wage settlement with union firefighters, which calls for salary increases of 3 to 4.5 percent per year for 2003 through 2007. Firefighters have worked for two years under an expired contract, and would receive retroactive pay of nearly $1 million for 2003 and 2004 combined. Council members may vote on the contract Monday.

In the evening, the council heard pleas from people who benefit from community center and human services programs aimed at persons with lower incomes.

Challys Resta, a single mother on a low income, said she has been balancing her household budget by taking advantage of affordable rates for child-care at the West Central Community Center.

West Central is proposed to lose $60,000 on its $135,000 allocation from the city general fund, and the cut could force an increase in day-care rates. Other community centers are facing similar cuts.

“Please, don’t take money from West Central,” Resta said.

Nanean Shupp said she has taken advantage of a range of programs at West Central for her children. The center gives kids positive choices, such as the evening teen program in the summer, she said.

The City Council must decide on a budget that calls for an $18 million reduction in city services from 2004 to 2005. General fund expenditures are dropping to a proposed $118 million in spending for 2005. At the same time, higher salaries and health-care costs as well as an increase in the cost of keeping inmates in jail are forcing the city to lay off workers and reduce many programs. As part of the problem, sales and utility taxes are not expected to see much growth next year.

Cuts are expected to include police officers, firefighters, librarians, park workers and others at City Hall.

As many as 58 firefighting positions could be cut from the general fund next year. The mayor’s proposed budget includes the fire salary increases made public Monday.

During Monday’s afternoon briefing session, Councilwoman Mary Verner asked what would happen if the City Council refused to accept the proposed five-year contract with firefighters.

Mike Shea, the director of human resources, said the contract talks would likely go into binding arbitration, in which an independent third party would decide on a fair amount for the city’s current force of about 315 firefighters, including those funded by communications and emergency medical budgets. Under state labor law, an arbitrator would compare Spokane’s salaries with those of comparable cities such as Tacoma, Vancouver and Federal Way.

City officials had acknowledged firefighter salaries were 9 to 15 percent below comparable Washington cities. The union said its salaries were actually 20 percent lower than those of the other cities.

“That’s kind of a crapshoot,” Shea said of binding arbitration.

Under the proposed contract, firefighters would receive salary increases every six months over the five-year period, which reduces the cost to the city in each individual year, but gives firefighters a higher base salary going into subsequent years.

The semiannual increases total 3 percent for 2003, 4 percent for 2004, 4.5 percent for 2005 and a minimum of 3 percent each for 2006 and 2007, depending on how much the federal government’s cost-of-living index rises. The urban cost of living in the U.S. increased 3.2 percent for the past 12 months, the government reported.

“I’m very concerned about the economic impact of this agreement …,” Verner said.

A city document shows the total additional salary and health benefits to be paid to firefighters amounts to nearly $8 million over the five years.

At the same time, the city administration is proposing to cut 75 police and fire officers to balance its 2005 budget. Other union workers, including the Police Guild, have settled contracts this year that have provided salary increases.

Lt. Greg Borg, president of Local 29 firefighters, said the timing of the contract may be difficult, but that his members believe they should not to pay for city budget problems that are not their fault.

Even firefighters facing layoffs “want a good job to come back to” if they are eventually rehired, he said. “I have 300 other people to worry about,” he said of his union force.