ANDERSON - Nine city workers have opted to take advantage of an early retirement plan that city officials hoped would help deter layoffs.
Workers with at least one year of seniority were invited to retire early and earn $800 for each year worked as well as money for half of accrued sick days and all accrued vacation days. The deadline to take the option was Thursday.
City controller Karen Carpenter said she had not yet figured out how much money the nine retirements would save the city, but Deputy Mayor Greg Graham said previously it would take cutting roughly 25 employees' salaries to save the city $1 million.
Some of the employees will need to be replaced, Carpenter said, although she was waiting to have meetings with the mayor and department leaders to determine how many. Replacing the workers would allow the city to bring in lower paid employees.
Employees' last day will be no later than March 31 or April 21 if they must train a replacement.
Employees receive about 10 hours of sick time a month, Graham said before the Thursday deadline, and non-union employees' sick time can accumulate. Maximum vacation time is about five weeks.
Employees who take the early retirement option are not allowed to be rehired by the city at a later date.
"It hasn't always been that way," Graham said. "That's created some controversy. Some folks don't think that's right. They think once you retire you need to move on."
The retirement option is the city's fourth in the past several years, and this time it was used as a way to help cut $4.5 million from the budget by 2010, a shortfall created by state property tax caps.
With early retirement, an increased share of food and beverage revenue and funds coming from Hoosier Park Racing and Casino, the city hoped to avoid or reduce layoffs, but Carpenter didn't know yet how the nine retirements would affect layoff plans.
For non-unionized employees, temporary and part-time workers are laid off first before individual departments assess their own manpower needs, Graham said. Union employees are laid off mainly by seniority, he said.
Although the Anderson Fire Department recently hired five new firefighters, that department, along with the Anderson Police Department, has cut its numbers in recent months. AFD is in agreement with the city to maintain 125 firefighters.
"Part of the commitment to public safety is to maintain those numbers," Graham said.