By Dan Hinkel, Times of Northwest Indiana
dan.hinkel@nwi.com
The city of East Chicago laid off at least 16 employees last week, City Controller Charlie "Tuna" Pacurar said.
Following waves of unpaid furlough days and pay cuts aimed at slimming the city budget, the city sliced a total of 16 or 17 workers from various departments, Pacurar said Monday. Pacurar said the city conservatively could expect to save about $500,000 from the "reduction in force."
The layoffs included both union employees and nonunion workers. The employees came from the parks department and engineering department, among other divisions, Pacurar said.
The cuts drop the city work force to about 750 people, down from a staff of more than 1,000 during the administration of former Mayor Robert Pastrick, Pacurar said.
Pacurar said city leaders chose which positions to cut by assessing what the city could "afford to let go right now." Pacurar said he could not rule out a union employee contesting his or her removal, but he said human resources officials "thoroughly" researched the cuts before the workers were notified Wednesday.
Some of the workers could be called back to work, Pacurar said. The city also reassigned a handful of workers, and some of those moves reduced the employees' pay, Pacurar said.
Struggling to work within the boundaries of the state's tax caps, city officials set the 2010 budget at $32.5 million, 5 percent lower than the 2009 figure. The East Chicago Board of Public Works and Safety recently approved 5 percent cuts in police and firefighter salaries. Workers outside the public safety departments have been forced to take unpaid furlough days.
The City Council passed a salary ordinance for elected officials in 2010 that contains the same pay rate as the previous year because the council lacks authority to cut the pay of other elected officials. Mayor George Pabey has filed paperwork to slice his pay by $2,866 to match the 5 percent cut imposed on city employees, and City Council members reduced their pay by 10 percent, or $1,694 per year.