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Sunday, Jun. 21, 2009

Macon work force bloated, some say

For years, Macon’s population has been shrinking.

But the size of city government — as measured by its work force, at least — has not. In fact, it has grown.

In 1990, 1,274 full-time employees served a population of more than 106,000. By the time the number of Macon residents dropped to 93,000 in 2007, the most recent year for which the Census Bureau provides population estimates, the city’s payroll included a little more than 1,400 full-time positions.

Little has changed in the past two years. There is money for 1,380 positions in the upcoming 2010 budget cycle, and based on recent trends, the population continues to slip. That means that over the course of the past 20 years, Macon has gone from nearly 12 employees for every thousand residents it serves to 15 city workers.

Personnel costs eat up the lion’s share of the city budget, and it’s starting to put a strain on the public purse. In planning the next budget cycle, Mayor Robert Reichert expected to have to furlough employees to balance revenues with expenses. The council ultimately rejected that plan, but even the options it chose will leave Macon in a similarly tight situation this time next year.

After all, taxpayers don’t just fund salaries. They pay for robust benefits that many employees reap over a lifetime, including a pension and health care now and in retirement.

It’s the benefit costs in particular that threaten to spiral out of control and smother Macon’s long-term financial plans. Health care alone will cost the city $7,250 per employee and retiree in 2010, $1,000 more per worker than this year.

The spectre of a never-ending, ever-increasing expense that is further inflated by a potentially bloated work force has city officials questioning what the right size of Macon’s government ought to be. Chief Administrative Officer Thomas Thomas says Macon needs to shed 100 to 150 positions.

He is reviewing individual city departments, comparing them to cities elsewhere and trying to determine where duties can be combined into a single position. He said he already has discovered places where that’s possible, though he declined to specifically say where.

In recent years, Macon has operated with as many as 80 vacancies in its work force. The city has continued to fund the positions, and each quarter officials sweep the unspent money into reserves to help pay other expenses. But continuing that practice over the long term “is almost like cheating,” Thomas said, because it causes imprecise budgeting.

Thomas will present his conceptual plan for a right-sized city to council members this week and will also develop a mechanism for a work force reduction in case that’s needed, too.

Most officials hope the work force will shrink through eliminated vacancies, natural attrition and perhaps coerced or incentivized retirements. The administration also is putting together a process for formally evaluating employees, which the city has lacked for nearly a decade.

“Some of them are going to shine, and they’ll be given the opportunity for additional responsibility,” Thomas said. “Some won’t shine, and they’ll either improve or move on to other organizations.”

If natural attrition does not yield enough departures, it raises the prospect of layoffs. Downsizing of any sort prompts a choice for council members: How far do they go to protect employees at the financial expense of the city and tax-paying residents?

The council seems to acknowledge that significant changes must be made if politically popular ideas like a pay scale are going to be put into place anytime soon.

Members have begun looking at a resolution to encourage retirements by taking away retiree health-care benefits for anybody who leaves city employment after Sept. 30. The resolution would not affect anyone who retired before then but could spur eligible retirees to leave now and save their benefits.

Of course, some city council members balked at that idea. They say it treats long-serving employees too harshly. At the same time, forthcoming proposals for right-sizing may appear even more blunt.

Council President Miriam Paris said so far the council has not made the tough decisions to fully serve the interest of the entire city. She admonished some of her colleagues last week for trying to block consideration of another piece of legislation that would stop the city from offering retirement health-care benefits to future employees. The objection, primarily from Councilmen Charles Jones and Lonnie Miley, was that discussion of taking away any employee benefit is offensive to “loyal” city workers.

“They do not show up for a job just because they love the city,” Paris told them. “They get a paycheck, and they get benefits.”

In a later interview, she said the size of the work force is “disproportionate” to the population. Layoffs should be treated as a worst-case scenario, she said. But she also expressed frustration that such a cost-saving step seems to be taken seriously “everywhere but Macon, Georgia.”

“It may be unpopular, but it is a stark reality of life with this current economy,” she said. “We have a social contract with the whole city.”

Councilwoman Lauren Benedict, chairwoman of the Employee Development and Compensation Committee, said it requires a difficult balancing act to make needed cuts without harming specific workers. But she said she thinks her committee is willing to listen to every option, including layoffs, even if it’s not yet ready to commit to a step that drastic.

“We’re still in Band-Aid mode in terms of revenues and expenses,” she said. “We’ve got to come up with a way to eliminate costs. ... It’s going to hurt no matter how we get there, but I think we’re at a point where we’ve got to figure out a way to right-size.”

To contact writer Matt Barnwell, call 744-4251.