News
Mayor's Budget and Reserve Fund
ARCHIVED PRESS RELEASE: Published 2-5-2010
When Mayor Bartlett took office in December of last year, the
City of Tulsa sales tax revenues were in a historic decline, and it
was apparent that expenses needed to be reduced in the general fund
to balance the budget. Bartlett stated that all departments should
share in the cuts, including the Mayor's Office.
Shortly after taking office, Mayor Bartlett and his staff began
reviewing expenses that could be reduced. Two staff members who had
been working with the Taylor administration left the City's
employment when Bartlett brought in his own staff. The mayor is
permitted to hire 16 at-will positions or appointees to his staff.
While knowing a 4.4 percent reduction would need to be made, Mayor
Bartlett chose to leave four at-will (appointed) positions open. In
addition, office supplies and other expenses reduced the mayor's
budget by an additional 6.5 percent.
Mayor Bartlett has agreed to take an 8.5 percent personal salary
reduction and Terry Simonson, Chief of Staff has agreed to a five
percent personal salary reduction as well. Other members of the
staff are not obligated to take a salary reduction, but would have
taken pay cuts if the AFSCME union had voted to take salary
reductions instead of layoffs.
Reserve
As of Dec. 31, 2009, the City of Tulsa general fund reserve
balance was $2.5 million. If the savings anticipated from the Fire
Department reorganization is not realized, the Mayor's Office
committed $1.2 million of the reserve to the Fire Department. That
amount could increase if the savings are lower than expected. The
reserve will not be exhausted as 5.76 percent of the general
revenues are deposited into the reserve on a monthly basis.
The reserve was not part of the MOU with the fire department for
the reduction of expenditures as voted on by the fire union
members. However, the portion of the reserve used to fund the Fire
Department shortfall this year will be recovered through attrition
savings next year.
An agreement was also reached with the FOP leadership to allow
its membership to vote on the mayor's proposal to keep 155 police
officers or take a 5.2 percent salary cut with some concessions.
The FOP agreement was voted down, and on Friday of last week 155
police officers received layoff notices. Through MOU's between the
City and the FOP, retirements and resignations took place,
rescinding 31 police layoff notices, bringing the total police
officer layoffs to124. The police union received a similar proposal
to the Fire Department in the following areas: length of agreement,
salary savings and savings from furloughs.
For non-sworn employees, the option was between a 5.2 percent
salary cut or layoffs. Although job classification including,
Administrative and Technical, Airport Officers, Office Technical,
Emergency Communicators and Labor and Trades are included in the
AFSCME union, all non-sworn employees, including exempt or
unclassified positions had the opportunity to vote for either
layoffs or a salary reduction. AFSCME non-sworn employees voted for
layoffs and Mayor Bartlett said he would agree to their opinion
poll. Instead of issuing all non-sworn employees (including Mayor's
Office staff) a 5.2 percent salary cut, layoffs began to occur
referring back to each 4.4 percent department reduction
submissions. There were 59 non-sworn employees laid off, but
currently only 30 of the 59 have been laid off due to retirement
and the "bumping" system.
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