Zucal/Lautenschleger Retroactive Pay Increases Endanger New Philadelphia Budget

       City Council, under the direction of John Zucal, is pushing hard to pass a piece of legislation which will increase the salary of the Fire Chief by almost double his current salary.  The chief, by the way, hasn’t objected.  But there is a problem or two, which Mr. Zucal has not brought before council.

First, what is the cost of this pay increase going to be and how will the city be able to pay for it?  The cost is unknown.  After repeated requests from council members and others, Zucal is unable, or unwilling to disclose the actual cost of such a pay raise.

Second, where is the money coming from to pay for such an exorbitant increase?  Zucal has this one figured out in that he wants to rob the ambulance fund, which is mandated to pay for equipment purchases and repairs plus overtime due hourly fire fighters who man the ambulances, not for salaried fire chiefs.

Third, how much will the Police Chief’s salary be raised, or the Service Director, or the Water Department Supervisor, or…well, you get the idea.

As far as the money is concerned, there’s no problem according to Zucal and Councilman Lautenschleger.

Lautenschleger isn’t concerned about financial problems until the end of 2014.  That should put our minds at ease, unless you live to 2015.  Isn’t this a lot like the wife coming in and saying,  “We have a hundred dollars in the grocery fund money to last into next month so why not buy a new plasma television for six hundred dollars today?  I mean we have it now and we’ll worry about next month when it arrives.”  Sounds a lot like the housing bubble that broke the economy a few years ago.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  You remember them and how buying homes without being able to make the down payment, let alone keep the mortgage payments, caused home foreclosures on a scale not seen in most people’s life time.  Cities are no different than personal finances.  The message here is if you don’t have the money, or another source of income, don’t spend money you don’t have.  If you do, it will always lead to eventual bankruptcy.

So where is the money coming from to pay for pay increases?  Actually, there is no problem here according to Zucal.  The Fire Chief’s salary increase won’t cost the citizen anything.  After all, he says, the money will come out of the ambulance fund.  Wait a minute.  Where did the ambulance fund come from?  If you guessed that it came from fees charged by the Fire Department for ambulance services, you are correct.  If there is enough money to pay for wage increases in the fund, why does the Fire Department want ambulance service rates increased by some 30%?  What am I missing here?  If Zucal and the Fire Chief say the ambulance fund is going to cover the costs, where is the revenue from increased ambulance fees going to go?

Even more questionable, if there isn’t a financial crisis in the city now, why was it necessary for Zucal and Lautenschleger to push so hard for a .75-percent income tax increase on last November’s ballot?  As you may remember, the citizenry decisively defeated that one.

A major concern, ignored by salary increase advocates, is where do the increases stop?  The reason given for the Fire Chief being granted an exorbitant wage raise is that he should be paid more than those fire fighters he supervises.  Wait a minute.  How far will this logic go?

If the Fire Chief is paid $90,000 a year, what about the Safety Director?  By law the Safety Director is the administrative head of the Police and Fire Departments.  Therefore, the Safety Director, following the logic Zucal uses to provide the Fire Chief with a salary of eighty three thousand dollars a year, that is the Fire Chief should have a salary in excess of what fire fighters make, the safety director should be salaried for at least $95,000 a year.  That being the case, the Mayor, considering that both the Safety Director and Fire Chief would be earning more than he does, and he does supervise both, he should receive a salary of at least $100,000 annually.

One more thing to take into consideration is the not mentioned by proponents of this legislation is that Zucal wants these pay increases be made retroactive to January 1, 2013.  Anybody out there really think we can afford this?

Zucal’s push at this time is to get the third reading of the legislation, which would give the Fire Chief the largest salary of any New Philadelphia city employee, made on the floor this year, in hopes of getting it passed before the balance of power shifts with the seating of Councilperson Cheryl Ramos in Ward One.  For this reason, he has called a special council meeting on Wednesday, December 18.  Call your Councilman and ask him to vote against this ill-advised legislation.  Zucal doesn’t know what the final cost of this action will be.  Nobody knows where the funds to finance it are coming from.  A tax increase will unquestionably be asked for if the legislation is passed.

Call your councilman and ask that he does not vote to pass any legislation which will raise taxes because of salary increases.

Councilman Proposes Raiding Ambulance Fund To Pay New Philadelphia Fire Chief

       Well, Zucal seems to be at it again.  I’m not sure where the Ward Two City Councilman comes up with his ideas, but this one, typical of how he operates in council, has some really strange twists.

Fire Chief Jim Parish was making a bundle of money as a fire fighter with the New Philadelphia Fire Department.  The base salary was good, somewhere around $50,000 a year.  The benefits, life and health insurance, overtime pay (paid at twice the regular hourly pay for any time over scheduled work time), uniform allowance, paid holidays, sick leave, added onto the base pay, increased take-home pay to more than $80,000 a year.  Life was good.

Then the chance for Parish to become Fire Chief raised its head.  Parish applied for the position.  He studied for the test, passed the examination, and won the appointment.  Low and behold, the advertised salary for the Fire Chief was, in reality, less than what a fireman could make when the overtime was included. 

Chief Parrish objected.  This was going to cut into his retirement so he strongly objected.

Councilman Zucal, who, at the time, was running for reelection and wooing the New Philadelphia city workers vote, took up his case.  Zucal proposed raising the Chief’s base salary to 85 to 90 thousand dollars a year, a figure that does not include the cost of benefits to which he would be entitled.  Parish and Zucal also asked that the Fire Chief be paid double overtime for any time worked over the standard forty hours.

How this raise was going to be paid for was brought up in the December 23 ad hoc committee chaired by Zucal, by Ms. Cox, Chairperson of the Finance Committee.  Cox asked Zucal what the costs would be to the City should Parrish be given the requested salary increase.  Zucal never provided an answer to her question, rather told her to “add it up yourself”.  When Cox persisted to ask for the financial effect on the city’s budget, a question to which Zucal obviously did not know the answer, he ended the discussion by shouting for her to “Be quiet!”

It was hoped, by those who were interested in raising the Chief’s salary, that a city income tax resolution which would increase the citizens tax burden by .75-percent , that was defeated in November’s election, would raise revenue to cover such items.  Its failure dashed such hopes.  But wait.  There was another plan waiting in the wings.

Plan two was to raise the cost of the New Philadelphia Fire Department’s Ambulance service.  With an increase of income from the city’s ambulance services, money could be taken from the ambulance fund to pay the Chief’s $40,000 pay raise.  Three types of services would be involved, each of which deals with life threatening events or accidents.  The increased costs to people using the Fire Department ambulances service would amount to nine-percent.  Furthermore, it is highly questionable that taking funds from the Ambulance Service to pay for the chief’s requested pay raise would pass legal scrutiny, let alone a moral evaluation.

This proposal, Resolution No. 31-2013, which was presented to City Council by Zucal under sponsorship of the Ambulance Committee, of which Zucal is a member.  By this action Zucal once again showed his ignorance of City Ordinances, his contempt of City Council, his disdain for the citizens of New Philadelphia.

You see, the Ambulance Committee is not even remotely connected to City Council.  It is an appointed advisory committee charged with making recommendations on the operations of the Fire Department Ambulance service.  It reports to the City Council, keeping them aware of daily operations, financial needs, equipment needs, and such other matters it deems important.  Mr. Zucal should know this.  If he doesn’t know the difference between a City Council Committee and an advisory committee appointed by Council for advisory purposes, which apparently he does not, he cannot responsibly fill his position on city council. He should either educate himself on the workings of city government or reevaluate the advisability of continuing his position as a ward councilman.

So here we have an interesting situation.  We have a fire chief who politicked for his job, got it, then complains that he is underpaid.  Get a life, Jim.  You chose the position.  You wanted it, you campaigned for it, and you got it.  Fulfill your commitment.  Live with it.