Roselle police face layoffs

Roselle plans to lay off two rookie police officers on Dec. 1 due to budget constraints, unless the police union agrees to pay cuts and other concessions.

Village officials said they have been trying since September to arrange talks with the Metropolitan Alliance of Police Chapter 258, which represents 27 Roselle Police Department employees.

So far, no formal meeting has occurred and union attorney Joe Mazzone agreed to the first discussion this week.

The union has sent 17 requests to Roselle for financial documents, and village officials said they obliged several. But Mazzone argues they are not detailed enough to prove pay cuts are warranted.

"In many villages we're representing, we find ... most of these cries of poor are based upon projections, not hard numbers," Mazzone said.

Both officers set to be dismissed have been on the force for less than one year. Village Administrator Jeff O'Dell said eliminating their salaries, insurance and benefits will save proximately $225,000.

Roselle is facing a $1 million budget shortfall that has already resulted in one unpaid furlough day per month for all 44 nonunion village employees for the next 13 months, as well as elimination of their cost of living increases for 2010.

Also, village hall is now closed the second Friday of every month.

Early this fall, the village also put a moratorium on Roselle's annual sick leave buyback program and eliminated management bonuses and increases for workers who have reached the top of their pay grade.

Officials said they still hope to reach a deal before the patrol officers lose their jobs.

"Our intent all along has been to work something out with the union to avoid the layoffs," said O'Dell. "We're still hopeful that we can."

Currently, Roselle administrators are in discussions with the union that represents 12 full-time employees in the Roselle Fire Department. They are also negotiating with the public works union that represents 21 employees.

No concessions have been agreed upon yet.

Mazzone, who represents police unions throughout the suburbs, said Roselle police would consider options like delaying raises until the economy recovers.

But he believes pay cuts are unnecessary and points to a police union victory in the city of Waukegan. The city threatened to lay off two sergeants and seven patrolmen this fall, but no cuts occurred, he said.

"Everyone is jumping on the recession bandwagon, but the recession didn't start yesterday," Mazzone said. "The housing market has been in decline since 2006. So I think this is pretty disingenuous to ask for money Roselle agreed to give 11 months ago (when contracts were signed)."

In addition to the possibility of fewer police officers, Roselle residents already have seen changes as the village suffers from falling revenue sources like sales tax, state shared income tax, building permits, and hotel and motel taxes.

To compensate, the village has delayed several capital purchases, elminated Fourth of July entertainment and stopped brush pickup.

In July, Roselle also joined DuPage Public Safety Communications, switching all its 911 calls and emergency dispatches to the regional service. Officials said this will save roughly $250,000 annually but required laying off eight union telecommunicators.

In addition, officials earlier this year laid off one employee while reorganizing the community development and finance departments, opted not to fill an open police sergeant position and downsized the building inspector post to part-time after the full-time inspector retired.