Layoffs on the way in Naperville for the new year

Naperville plans to lay off some employees to shore up its budget, but the cuts will not take place until the new year.

The city council has discussed the possibility in two closed-door meetings, City Manager Doug Krieger said Tuesday, but is not yet ready to pursue staff reductions.

"It's a matter that both myself, as well as the city council, take very seriously both from a personal impact as well as a service impact perspective," Krieger said. "Because of that, it has been a very lengthy discussion."

Consultants are recommending the city eliminate the equivalent of 25.5 to 57 full-time employees to save $1.9 million to $4.3 million.

However, Krieger said the discussions are not far enough along for him to talk about the number of layoffs the city is actually considering.

Naperville has been working its way through what was once a $14.1 million budget hole for the fiscal year that begins in May 2010. It already has reduced that figure to $11.2 million and likely will fill the remaining gap with a combination of expenditure reductions and new revenue.

Krieger said every department is under review when it comes to personnel talks.

"We're looking at back-of-the-house operations first so as not to impact what residents will see in terms of service provision," Krieger said.

But he added that due to the size of the budget hole, nothing is off the table.

Naperville has slightly fewer than 1,000 employees. Of those, roughly 600 are represented by a union.

The city currently is negotiating with three bargaining units - the Fraternal Order of Police for both patrol officers and telecommunicators and the Metropolitan Alliance of Police for police sergeants, according to the city's labor and employment attorney, Dwight Pancottine.

It also has asked three bargaining units - International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 9, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399 and the FOP for detention officers - to open their contracts early, but they all declined.

Naperville experienced the largest job force reduction in its history in January 2009 when it laid off 20 employees on top of 23 vacant positions that already had been cut. Since then, another 10 vacant positions have been eliminated.

Krieger said a handful of vacant positions remain and any new layoffs probably will include a combination of vacant and filled positions.

City leaders will continue to discuss their budget at a Dec. 7 workshop.