Click here for the full text of Mayor Manzi's speech.
METHUEN - Mayor William Manzi last night said the city will survive this fiscal year without employee layoffs and reductions in services, but that next fiscal year could be different "without the help and cooperation of our municipal unions."
"It is, in my opinion, critical for all stakeholders in our system to realize that the current system of municipal finance is broken, and must be reformed," Manzi said during his annual State of the City address before the Methuen Board of Trade.
In this, his fourth such address since being elected, Manzi said, "I value the work of the 364 dedicated police officers, firefighters, DPW workers and others who keep city government running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and want to do everything I can to keep them on the job and serving the public."
He the city will be able to avert layoffs in the current fiscal year ending June 30 through the "imposition of dramatic budget cuts, but that Fiscal Year 2010 is another story altogether."
Manzi noted that the governor has announced Methuen will lose as much as $1.9 million in state aid and that he estimates that the city is facing a $2.5 million deficit.
"Methuen's public schools will be level funded...which will, without federal stimulus money, force painful cutbacks in our educational system," Manzi said.
"We will do our very best to avert layoffs...but we will not be able to do so without the help and cooperation of our municipal unions. We will develop proposals that will examine all facets of the municipal compensation system, and propose suspending some compensation outside of base salary for one year," Manzi said.
"We will develop those in cooperation with our workforce, in the hope that they share our goal of maintaining employment," Manzi said.
Though deals are still currently under negotiation with the police and DPW unions, the fire department union has already reached a compromise with the city.
Last month, the firefighters union unanimously voted to allow firefighters to work out of their grade. According to Fire Lt. Tim Sheehy, this means that firemen of a lower grade can fill in for a higher grade position if the higher grade was unavailable for their shift. Under normal contract stipulations, a fireman of a similar grade would need to be called in at overtime pay rates.
Moreover, shifts now only require a minimum of 18 firemen on duty compared to the 21 before.
"We're trying to work with the city while still keeping all the fire stations open and avoiding layoffs," said Sheehy who attended last night's speech at the Senior Center.
Despite the economic difficulties, Manzi said he hopes to move forward with renovations at the high school.
"I know that this is a large undertaking, but the condition of the existing school puts our accreditation at risk and is no longer the best environment in which to educate our children," said Manzi.
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For the full text of the Mayor's speech, visit www.eagletribune.com.
