Mayor: Extended Crisis Could Force City Layoffs, Furloughs

MELROSE, MA — If the coronavirus crisis continues to plague the city for an extended period of time, Melrose could "have no other choice" than to consider layoffs or furloughs, according to Mayor Paul Brodeur.

In a memo sent Wednesday to the City Council responding to inquiries about employee salaries, Brodeur said "Melrose is on solid financial footing" and stressed that layoffs and furloughs are not being considered right now, but the city is at the mercy of the length and breadth of the pandemic.

"If this crisis continues for an extended period of time and impacts the ability of certain departments to operate at 100% capacity or impacts the ability of the City to fund the critical services these departments provide, then I will be forced to consider the need to implement layoffs or an employee furlough program," the memo reads. "If we arrive at that point, we will simply have no other choice."

Brodeur has echoed many experts' projections that the fiscal picture is grim. Officials have maintained that Melrose is in a relatively stronger position than some communities due to its heavy reliance on residential taxes, but everyone acknowledges the uncertainty that lies ahead due to the pandemic.

Brodeur and his administration are in the thick of budget deliberations with the City Council. The proposed budget is $88,397,961.08, more than $1.7 million more than the current fiscal year.

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The following is Brodeur's complete memo:

As we are now in the midst of the City’s FY21 budget process, I want to provide this communication in response to recent requests for information which have been received separately from Councilor Tramontozzi dated May 15th, and Council McNaught dated May 18th.

In essence, both requests seek budget information related to employee salaries and compensation for FY20, as well as the proposed FY21 amounts. My Administration is committed to providing as much information as possible to the City Council in order to allow for an open and informed debate before voting to approve the FY21 City budget. Although I can appreciate the requests that have recently been made, it should be stressed that the data sought can be discerned from the FY20 and FY21 budget documents which have been presented to the City Council. For your convenience, I am providing an electronic copy of the FY20 budget as approved by the City Council in 2019.

Unfortunately, in order to provide the information sought in the form requested would require a tremendous investment of staff hours as it involves more than just downloading data into a spreadsheet. As some members may know, there are approximately 257 benefit eligible employees in the City budget. In order to present this payroll data in the requested format, staff would be required to manually compile: (1) FY20 salaries as approved; (2) FY21 salaries as proposed; and (3) each individual employee’s current level of compensation within the City’s Munis system. In order to then comprehensively summarize this payroll data, staff would also be required to: (1) research every employee who may have been placed in an interim pay grade, been promoted, or otherwise had their compensation adjusted in the past year; (2) research every new benefit eligible employee and determine any differences in their salary; and (3) research longevity increases by employee (which are routinely based on their anniversary date) as this amount is included as part of a Department’s “budgeted salary”. As you can imagine, this undertaking could certainly not be completed by noon on Thursday, and likely would take several weeks to complete.

That having been said, all employees (with the exception of the Mayor and the members of the City Council) receive increases based on either the terms of respective collective bargaining agreements or the City’s salary administration plan. As I noted in previous communication, the collective bargaining agreements are available on the webpage of the Human Resources Department.

Having said this, please know that I have instructed each of my Department Heads to provide as much information as possible during their respective budget hearings relative to any salary increases and/or adjustments within their departments between FY20 and FY21. It is my belief that this will provide you with details of any compensation changes that may have occurred since the beginning of FY20 as well as those anticipated to occur during FY21.

I also want to address the subject of furloughs and layoffs as I understand members of the City Council have inquired. It is quite obvious that none of us expected the impact of COVID-19 to be as deep and severe as it has been across the globe, and here at home. Having said that, I could not be prouder of our municipal employees – including our colleagues in the school department – who have stepped up, assumed their responsibilities on a remote and unique basis, and have continued the work of city government throughout this crisis. Many employees have been repurposed or taken on additional duties as the pandemic has progressed. There have certainly been bumps along the way, but overall our dedicated employees have done their level best to continue to provide some level of service to our community while dealing with this unprecedented disaster.

The good news is that the City of Melrose stands on solid financial footing, which in many ways puts us at an advantage over some of our neighbors as we weather these uncertain times. This has given my Administration the ability to present to you this budget – with a modest 2% increase from the FY20 bottom line – while continuing to provide critical services to our residents. The FY21 budget before you is a balanced one, it meets all of the City’s contractual and other obligations, and is built on conservative revenue projections that rely in part on our best current estimate of decreases in state aid in FY21. This coupled with the fact that my Administration is proposing to allocate approximately $2.5 million from our available free cash into the City’s various stabilization accounts, puts us in a solid financial position.

As a result, furloughs and layoffs of staff due to funding shortages are not contemplated in this budget, nor are they necessary at this time. As Mayor, my expectation is that every employee of the City will continue to provide 100% value for the compensation they are receiving, whether they are reporting to their physical work location or are working remotely during this crisis. Again, in some cases, employees may continue to be asked to take on tasks in addition to or different from their normal responsibilities.

However, please do not misunderstand my message here. If this crisis continues for an extended period of time and impacts the ability of certain departments to operate at 100% capacity or impacts the ability of the City to fund the critical services these departments provide, then I will be forced to consider the need to implement layoffs or an employee furlough program. If we arrive at that point, we will simply have no other choice.

Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to our continued partnership as we get through this crisis together.