Tiger Team : Changes to the contracts are exactly what must occur to avoid the out of control budget increases over the next few years
I read the report closely and most of the recommendations do not require any changes to contracts. But, at the end of the day, changes to the contracts are exactly what must occur to avoid the out of control budget increases over the next few years. We obviously cannot continue with the status quo. I looked at the contracts that were posted on line and they specifically say that the terms of the existing contracts do not have bearing on future contracts. So, why not make sensible changes when the contracts are up? At the very least, we need a permanent financial committee to look at these issues every year.
If you don’t agree with the recommendations they came up with in the report, how would you suggest Ridgewood avoid $1-2mm of budget increases each year?
All the suggestions from the tiger team revolve around reducing employee wages and benifits, dismantling contracts, changing work rules. It’s not the employees fault the village is in the mess that it is, and no mention is made of a multi million dollar cost over run when rebuilding village hall, nor is there any mention made of the squandering of cost savings from the pension contribution holiday left over from the whitman years. No mention made of reining in costs of health care legislateive help needed of course. Maybey someone can sugar coat what they want to do by calling it something else but it is what it is.
You obviously have not read the report. That is not what the group recommended at all. Most of the recommendations had nothing to do with employee benefits or wages.
The recommended contract changes were about simplifying the contracts and correcting certain unrealistic policies that cannot be sustained to bring them more in line with best practices in the private sector. However, starting salaries look like they have increased and the rate of base pay increases are higher than current levels in the first half of most employees’ careers. The big changes seem to be eliminate accumulated sick day pay, which is basically “double dipping” on the same pay and reducing excessive pension obligations to levels that are closer to what they were originally intended to be.
The report doesn’t blame the employees (I think it actually says that). Nor does it seek to punish them. You can blame whomever you want. But, the reality is that the current contract structures are unrealistic and unaffordable. The taxpayers can’t afford to keep paying more and, in private, many employees will admit that they knew this day was coming.
I did read the report and no matter how you look at it or sugar coat it, the report says the contracts have to be changed to affect cost saving down the road, the are you saying that the report say the employees should make MORE money and benifits? Sick time is a product of civil service regulation, and pension obligations are also regulated by public law and cannot be changed by negotiation in a civil service town. although the report states the employees are not to blame in print the fact of the matter is the cost savings that is reccomended will come at the employee expense. Sick pay as it is is not double dipping an employee with an exellent sick record gives back 1/2 of his accumulated time. The report made a recomendation to generate a class of police officer for traffic only. That would serve no purpose other than reducing the earning potetial of the police officer. Traffic jobs are not paid for by the town, they are paid for by the contractor who hires them .