Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon sent a clear message Wednesday to fire and police unions who have resisted her cost-saving furlough plan: We will go after your pay if talks on other concessions collapse.
Led by Dixon, the city Board of Estimates authorized a reduction in police and fire salaries to save $8 million this year. The money is the final piece necessary to complete Dixon's $60.2 million midyear budget reduction plan, needed to close a hole left by state cuts and lower-than-expected revenue projections. The overall city budget is $2.3 billion.
"We are very serious," Dixon said after two of her appointees on the board also voted for the measure, which passed by a 3-1 margin. The mayor characterized the vote as a way of "putting more fire under their feet."
Wednesday's vote does not automatically cut salaries, but gives the administration the ability to do so if negotiations further deteriorate and an independent arbitrator agrees to changes in contracts. City Solicitor George Nilson and City Finance Director Edward J. Gallagher both took pains to make that point during the meeting.
"What this is saying is, lacking an agreement, we would proceed with reduction in the salaries," Gallagher said.
Other unionized city employees and managers agreed in September to five furlough days to stave off hundreds of layoffs. Those who earn more than $50,000 agreed to eight days off with no pay.
But the public safety unions rejected the plan, saying it would reduce staffing to a dangerously low level. Instead, they wanted to negotiate other ways of saving money.
Those talks began in September with a deadline of yesterday.
"Are they going well? I don't think they are," Dixon said of the talks. "We were hoping to have an agreement by now."
City politicians have traditionally curried favor with public safety unions, who can provide money and organizational backing during elections.
While Dixon has shown she does not need the backing of public safety unions, winning her 2007 election handily without their endorsements, the maneuver still poses some risks. It comes as her public image is imperiled by the criminal charges she faces as the result of a lengthy probe into City Hall corruption.
The first of her two trials - on charges that she used gift cards intended for needy families for personal purchases - begins early next month. Support from police and firefighters could provide a buffer as she moves forward.
Robert Cherry, president of Baltimore's Fraternal Order of Police, was "very displeased" that the Dixon administration officials took the vote.
"Despite some of the comments that have been put out there, I think that negotiations are moving forward," Cherry said.
He praised City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake for having the "courage" to vote against the measure. In explaining her opposition, Rawlings-Blake called the action "premature."
"If we had a notion that they were negotiating in bad faith, that they weren't going to come to a conclusion, today would be the right day to make an action," Rawlings-Blake said. "The negotiations have a spirit of cooperation. For that reason I'm convinced we will reach a resolution."
Comptroller Joan M. Pratt abstained, saying she did not have sufficient information to cast her vote.
The Dixon administration has good reason to believe an arbitrator would side with the city should the union talks crumble. After lengthy testimony from the city's budget leaders over the summer, an arbitrator recently rejected the fire unions' bid for a raise this year. Since then the city's fiscal outlook has worsened.
But the unions have consistently rejected a furlough plan.
Cherry said furloughs could jeopardize the city's most recent crime reductions. The cost-saving plan, he said, would take 36 uniformed police officers off the streets each day from the patrol division alone. "We all want to share in the pain," Cherry said. "But many areas are already sending out cars that are short" of officers.
The mayor has said she is open to police concessions other than furloughs - as long as the union members provide roughly $5 million in savings. Deputy Mayor Christopher Thomaskutty, who is negotiating on behalf of the administration, declined to comment.
The fire unions - there are two - are being asked to come up with $2.8 million in concessions. The city's Fire Department - recently rated by Baltimore residents as the most important city service - already puts four fire companies out of service each day on a rotating basis because they lack the personnel to staff all the equipment.
Calls to the presidents of the two fire unions were not returned yesterday, and sources familiar with the talks said they are close to a deal.
In the past, fire union officials have said that participating in the furlough program would mean sidelining up to 10 trucks and engines each day.
But Dixon has, in interviews, hinted at another solution for the Fire Department. One problem with Fire Department staffing, she said in an interview last month, is the number of vacation days they've negotiated with the city.
"I believe part of the concern we are facing right now is the amount of time that firefighters have off, compared to on," Dixon said. "And so it makes it difficult for us to have an ongoing surge of firefighters and paramedics working consistently."
