By Jill Harmacinski
jharmacinski@eagletribune.com
July 01, 2009 01:03 am LAWRENCE - The City Council last night approved a $240 million school and municipal budget, and in a separate unanimous vote said they will keep two city firehouses open. "I'm very happy with the outcome tonight," said Councilor Grisel Silva, budget and finance committee chairman. Mayor Michael Sullivan was equally impressed noting "in the most fiscally turbulent time in America, the Lawrence budget passes on time." Today is the deadline to submit the fiscal year 2010 budget to the state Department of Revenue for approval. In years past the city has been months late passing a budget. While agreeing to keep the firehouses open, doing so will require another council vote in the near future. A $1.56 million fire department budget addendum, treated as an emergency appropriation to the fiscal year 2010 budget, is now subject to a public hearing and another council vote in the next two weeks. Sullivan applauded the work of Mark Andrews, budget and finance director, who he said worked with department heads to get the budget passed on time. Firehouses on Tower and Prospect Hills were to be closed to help partially plug a $10 million drop in state aid next year. The drop in funding resulted in a $1.6 million shortfall in the fire department budget. But on Monday night, councilors balked at approving a budget with the firehouse closures, describing it as a danger to public safety. Andrews, Fire Chief Peter Takvorian and other officials yesterday worked out an emergency plan that pulls money from severance, vehicle, school and reserve accounts to keep the firehouses open and prevent 14 firefighter layoffs. Rotating closures of the city's six firehouses, a practice started this spring to cut overtime costs, would also continue providing $675,000 in revenue. Firefighters themselves will have to come back to the bargaining table and agree to some sort of financial concessions, Andrews said. Earlier this month, firefighters rebuffed a cost-savings proposal that delayed a scheduled raise, saving $500,000, and asked crews to give up half of their longevity pay. It's unclear what concessions will be posed to the union now. At the suggestion of Councilor Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez, however, the council officially vowed, by unanimous vote, not to close the firehouses last night. Three councilors, Roger Twomey, Jorge Gonzalez, and Patrick Blanchette, voted against accepting the budget. On the flip side, Silva, Alvarez-Rodriguez and fellow councilors David Abdoo, Frank Moran, Michael Fielding and Nicholas Kolofoles provided the six necessary "yes" votes. The budget must now be sent to the Department of Revenue for approval. Today is the deadline to submit. The city's $80 million municipal budget relied heavily on workers agreeing to unpaid furlough days and other financial concessions to save their jobs and reach bottom line targets. With the exception of the firefighters, twelve other municipal unions, including police officers, agreed to 12 days of furlough. Non-union employees, including the mayor and department heads, must also take 12 days off without pay in fiscal year 2010. However, furloughs do not work for the fire department because of already low staffing levels and minimum manning requirements, officials said previously. Sullivan said the unions agreed "to give up some compensation this year because they understand the financial times were are in and they also understand that the city of Lawrence needs their services." He said he looks forward to "sitting down with the firefighters' union as soon as possible to try to help them see the bigger picture. I have faith that will happen." ÔÇæÔÇæÔÇæ Join the discussion. To comment on stories and see what others are saying, log on to eagletribune.com.
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