Carpentersville lays off six

In an effort to slash $1.1 million from its budget, the village Carpentersville has laid off six village employees and eliminated 4½ empty positions in the police department, officials said Friday.

But depending on how upcoming union negotiations go, that number could grow, Village Manager Mark Rooney warned. Union contracts are up with full-time fire fighters, police officers and sergeants, public works employees and civilian workers in finance, community development and police records.

“If the demands that they have in their union negotiations exceed the budget ... there will have to be additional layoffs,” Rooney said.

Last Friday’s layoffs were just part of the overall cost-savings package to balance the village’s roughly $55 million budget.

The village also combined the community development, engineering and economic development departments into one department and merged human resources with the finance department.

Moreover, Carpentersville is completing an analysis to see whether it’s cheaper to outsource building inspection services or to keep it in house, said Finance Committee Chairman Paul Humpfer.

“We need to make sure that we’re going to save money at the end of the day,” Humpfer said.

Last Friday’s layoffs marked the first time in recent memory that Carpentersville let employees go, said Finance Director Lisa Happ.

As compensation, the employees received two weeks severance pay and a month of additional health care coverage. Depending on seniority, the package ranged from $2,600 to $4,000. With Friday’s cuts, there are now 180 village employees.

Employees have known since the first week of November layoffs were coming and that they’d be based on seniority. The village warned them far in advance so the workers could plan their holidays.

“It’s been stressful for months around here,” Happ said.

Authorities say the state owes them nearly $900,000 in income tax and that building permits are down, while sales tax remained flat.

As well, the village recently increased the tax levy from $10.18 million to $10.89 million, but the increase funded debt service and pension costs, rather than employees, Rooney said.

“Something had to give and that give would be personnel,” Rooney said.