After buyouts, Aurora to talk to unions

Thirty employees who volunteered to resign from their positions with the city of Aurora all will be allowed to leave, city officials said Tuesday.

The buyouts are expected to save the city more than $2 million and help bridge a projected $18 million gap in next year's budget, city spokesman Kevin Stahr said.

The fire department will lose 12 employees to the buyouts, the highest total from any city department, Stahr said.

The department already is operating with eight fewer sworn firefighters than its maximum staffing level of 205, Fire Chief Hal Carlson said.

“We're going to be affected,” Carlson said about the reduction in employees. “What we decide to do with the shortage is to be determined.”

The police department is losing the second highest number of employees five and the finance and parks and recreation departments each will lose two staffers. One employee from each of the following departments also has been approved to leave, bringing the total to 30: buildings and permits, customer service, engineering, historic preservation, human resources, motor vehicles, special events, streets and water and sewer.

Each employee's last day with the city will be Dec. 3 or sooner. Under the voluntary separation agreements allowing the employees to leave, each employee will receive four weeks of severance pay and four or eight months of medical and dental insurance, depending on their seniority.

“These employees still do technically have time to rescind their application up until their final day of employment,” Stahr said.”

With the voluntary separation applications approved, the city is getting closer to presenting a balanced budget to city council and the public for review, Finance Director Brian Caputo said.

“We went through the general process of cutting out basically all, most, discretionary dollars in department budgets,” Caputo said. “It's getting to be an annual ritual.”

But the city still is opening negotiations with the 10 unions that represent 823 of its 955 employees to discuss possible decreases in pay and benefits, Alisia Lewis, director of human resources, said.

With cuts to staffing, salaries, programs and funding necessary at many municipalities, Caputo said employees and unions understand the city's need to bargain with them in order to make ends meet.

“Concession discussions with unions are the last step,” Caputo said. “We're very lean now.”