City Beat: City cuts employee perks, cites revenue shortfall

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by Jeremy Elwood|ret||ret||tab|

SBJ Reporter|ret||ret||tab|

jelwood@sbj.net|ret||ret||tab|

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Several rezoning requests and a change to the city salary ordinance were among the topics on a crowded Springfield City Council agenda Dec. 13.|ret||ret||tab|

Council approved changes to the city salary rates for employees on several different pay schedules. Future employees on the Professional, Administrative and Technical schedule, the Crafts, Trade and Labor schedule, and the Department Head schedule will not get certain benefits that current union members receive. |ret||ret||tab|

One of those benefits is the "80 and out" option, which allowed workers to retire before the standard retirement age of 60 if the employee's age and number of years of service with the city totaled 80 or more. In another change, city employees are now in "non-contributor" status with the Local Government Employees Retirement System (LAGERS) program, meaning the city will cover the employees' contributions to the retirement fund for 2005 and 2006. These city contributions, which will effectively add around 4 percent to employee paychecks, are in lieu of a pay raise.|ret||ret||tab|

Members of the Fire Protection schedule are giving up some perks too, including their previously unlimited amount of continuous holiday vacation pay. The workers will have their vacation time paid off in varying degrees upon retirement, depending on when they retire. In exchange, the firefighters have added four additional steps to the top end of their pay ladder.|ret||ret||tab|

City Manager Tom Finnie said he is not thrilled with the idea of having to cut back, but he said that the city "can't print money in the lower level of the Busch Building."|ret||ret||tab|

More than half of the city's revenue comes from sales taxes, which have been down of late, city officials said. In October, retail sales in Springfield slipped an uncharacteristic 21.5 percent, leaving annual growth at less than 1 percent against a 3 percent projection. September sales also were down 13 percent.|ret||ret||tab|

All affected city employees except police officers have settled on decreased benefits.|ret||ret||tab|

"It's certainly not the easiest route to go, but I feel it's extremely important to keep our pay competitive," Finnie said. "We put out a survey to all the employees. The LAGERS employees chose a pay increase with the change in benefits, the fire employees chose to look at a performance pay system and change the benefits, and as everyone in the world knows, the police are still up in the air. But that (decision) was based on the feedback we got from the employees."|ret||ret||tab|

Mayor Tom Carlson echoed Finnie's statements, saying everyone both city management and employees have to "get real about what's in the realm of possibility and what isn't."|ret||ret||tab|

The police union has not yet come to an agreement with the city on what course of action to take regarding pay and benefits. Finnie said talks are ongoing.|ret||ret||tab|

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1,600-acre rezoning|ret||ret||tab|

Council heard a proposal to rezone more than 1,600 acres of land north of West Republic Road between James River Freeway, West Bypass and West Sunshine Street into two zoning districts: one for heavy commercial use and one for government/institutional use. The land currently houses City Utilities' southwest power plant, the city's waste water treatment plant and its recycling center.|ret||ret||tab|

Springfield Senior Planner Bob Hosmer said the majority of land is already in use.|ret||ret||tab|

"There's not that much land left," he said. "We figure there's about 170 acres or so remaining that would be usable for any other use. A lot of it, really, is already taken up by the existing uses. So that's why we need the HC zoning because it's compatible with the uses that are already there."|ret||ret||tab|

Though no immediate plans are in place, Hosmer said the possibility is there for the facilities on that land to expand.|ret||ret||tab|

"The possibility is that CU could expand the power plant in that area, and there's also the possibility of moving a metal recycling place to that area," he said. "The expansion has been left open to see whether they need to expand their operations to get another power plant online."|ret||ret||tab|

Any new CU power plant would require approval in a general election.|ret||ret||tab|

In other council news:|ret||ret||tab|

Council considered rezoning more than 23 acres on the east side of Scenic Avenue, just south of Sunshine Street. The land, currently owned by Southwest Missouri State University, would be developed into a new retail area, zoned as a general retail district, to tie into the existing shopping area at the corner of Scenic and Sunshine. There also is an area of residential townhouses planned on the southern part of the tract. Several improvements would be required, including the addition of a center turn lane on Scenic and a crosswalk to access nearby Sherwood Elementary School.|ret||ret||tab|

Council also considered rezoning 18.59 acres on the west side of Campbell Avenue, south of James River Freeway, from single-family housing to a general retail district. |ret||ret||tab|

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