Medford mayor urges city employees to pursue employment elsewhere

    Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn last month encouraged city employees to seek other employment options and get ready for impending layoffs as the city prepares for significant budget cuts and a multi-million-dollar budget shortfall next year.
    In a letter sent to all school and municipal employees on April 13, the mayor stated that there were "no guarantees for job security in the foreseeable future" and encouraged employees to "actively pursue other employment opportunities if they present themselves."
    The city will face a budget shortfall between $10 million and $11 million for fiscal year 2010, McGlynn told the Daily.
    This shortfall includes debt from city service operations — Medford spent an especially large amount on snow and ice removal this year — and, in particular, significant state-level budget cuts.
    The budget shortfall also reflects "badly anticipated news" from the state Senate, which has aims to cut the House version of the budget by an additional $1.5 billion, McGlynn said. At press time, the Senate was expected to release its budget last week.
    "If [you] can secure employment somewhere else," McGlynn said of city employees, "take advantage of it because it's all about your family's security."
    Medford's school department had previously sent out a different letter to employees without professional status — or, essentially, tenure — advising them that they may not have jobs unless the financial situation gets better, McGlynn said.
    "I've sat with people who are very much involved and follow these [budget] numbers, and everyone agrees it is very bad," McGlynn said.
    The extent of Medford's layoffs has not yet been determined. "You can't predict the number of layoffs," McGlynn said. "You have to predict the shortfalls, and when looking at $11 million, it's going to cost you."
    The city has already taken steps to address next year's budget shortfall, eliminating many positions that are currently vacant. Medford's deputy director of public works was recently laid off, McGlynn said; that position, along with a variety of others, will be eliminated, the mayor added.
    Some contend, however, that the mayor did not do enough before the letter was sent out. City employees received the letter with their paychecks several weeks ago.
    "Before you send out that type of letter, a whole bunch of things should have been exhausted," Medford City Councilor Robert Penta told the Daily. "It seems like all the things that might be indicative of how you get to that bottom-line number have not taken place."
    The Medford City Council, Penta said, was not addressed before the letter was sent and has had no part in formulating the budget for the next fiscal year.
    "We have no interaction with the budget until the mayor presents it to us, so until that happens, to some degree, we are still left in the dark," Penta said.
    McGlynn did not know when the final budget would be completed and released.
    Justin Hollander, a Tufts assistant professor of urban and environmental policy and planning, agreed that Medford could have prepared better for the financial crisis.
    "They could have had a long-range budget plan that anticipated that eventually the economy would have slowed down," he said. "[They] could have developed a more flexible budget or established a rainy-day fund."
    Medford's situation is not unique, Hollander said.
    "The problem is that the city of Medford is facing budget shortfalls, like just about every other town in Massachusetts," he said. "They are bringing in less revenue than the expenses they've maintained, and certainly they have some culpability."
    The budget shortfalls anticipated in Medford, Somerville and surrounding cities depend in large part on final decisions on state budget cuts.
    "The House budget was initially going to make very, very deep cuts," City of Somerville spokesman Tom Champion told the Daily. "Now, the House has voted to raise the sales tax and restore statewide over $200 million in local aid cuts."
    For Somerville, this new decision means that shortfalls will lie between $5 million and $10 million, according to Champion. For the shortfall to be on the lower end, Champion said, the state would need to give cities options for raising hotel taxes and closing a tax loophole affecting telecommunications companies; cities could also save money if the state gave them the power to make basic changes to the health insurance plans of its employees, he added.
    "If we get all of those changes, we're still looking at a significant shortfall in the coming year," Champion said, "but we would hope to make sure to maintain core services with minimal disruptions."
    Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone has asked all of the city's department heads to submit budget proposals for next year, considering several scenarios ranging from a 3-percent to a 10-percent budget cut, according to Champion. City officials do not yet know if they will have to resort to layoffs.
    "We're anticipating significant cuts in fiscal year 2010, and while we will try to avoid layoffs as we were able to do this year, it's going to be hard," Champion said. "We certainly can't rule it out."
    The Somerville Police Superior Officers Association recently helped with the situation by signing on May 4 a three-year contract that leaves salaries stagnant and increases the amount union members contribute to their health insurance.
    McGlynn and Curtatone have remained in close contact on their cities' respective financial difficulties, according to Champion.