Service cuts, layoffs loom in Rolling Meadows

The Rolling Meadows City Council opened up Tuesday's meeting with a cartoon. It showed a couple cooking dinner over a campfire with the caption, "Look on the bright side, honey, technically we're still not in a recession."

Except no one laughed.

To close a $1.1 million budget gap, the council will have to lay off city employees and cut services to residents, said Finance Director Jim Egeberg.

"There will be fewer services next year," Egeberg said. "When you're down five people in public works, there are just certain things you won't be able to do."

Some of the cuts Egeberg is talking about include cutting fire department special teams, such as the dive and urban search and rescue teams. Office hours at the fire and police departments could be eliminated, as well as services like branch chipping collection. Snow plowing of the sidewalks could be cut as well, along with reducing the plowed routes by 25 percent. There could also be fewer emergency response vehicles on the streets, according to a staff memo.

The biggest chunk - about 74 percent - of the city's operating budget pays for city employee salaries and benefits.

In July, the city implemented a hiring freeze and stopped filling positions when employees retired, but that wasn't enough, so cuts will have to be made, said City Manager Tom Melena.

At the start of 2008, there were 200 full-time city employees. That number will shrink to 180 people on Jan. 1, 2009, he said. Twelve of those cut positions will come through attrition and eight employees will probably be laid off, he said. Melena declined to say which departments will see the layoffs.

"I'm not prepared to disclose that at this time," he said after Tuesday's meeting.

Egeberg blames the tough economy for his city's budget problems. This year, Rolling Meadows saw a 43 percent increase in fuel and vehicle costs, a 15 percent increase in the price of buying water from Chicago, and a 9 percent increase in garbage pickup fees.

With the cuts looming, now is not the time to build a new fire station, said Alderman Larry Buske

In February, the council approved spending $1.2 million to build a two-bay station at Algonquin Road, just west of Weber Drive.

"We're going to raise taxes, do all these layoffs and then turn around and build a new fire station?" Buske said. "I think we should hold back on that."

Melena said the station is already paid for by selling bonds and that delaying its construction won't save a whole lot of money.

"If you don't build that fire station, that money is gone, you will never put it back," he said. "Not to mention the penalties that would have to be paid. It doesn't make sense. You're grasping at straws."

Other proposed elements of the 2009 budget include a 7.4 percent increase in the property tax levy to fund police and fire pensions and a 5 percent increase in the city's stormwater fund.

Rolling Meadows operates on a calendar year budget. The council will meet with city departments in September and October before hosting public hearings in November. The council will approve the budget in December.