Purzycki proposes tax hike, staffing cuts in Wilmington

• Mayor Mike Purzycki proposes cutting 29 vacant positions. No one will be laid off, he says.
• The property tax increase would add $140 per year to a $100,000 Brandywine Hills home tax bill.
• The average Wilmington resident could pay an additional $1.81 on a quarterly water bill.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the frequency of water bills in Wilmington. 

Citing a “looming fiscal crisis,” Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki is proposing a 7.5-percent property tax increase; a 4-percent water/sewer rate hike; and $2.5 million in cuts, including to public safety staff.

The $154.1 million budget proposal is a 0.1 percent increase over the previous year. To balance the budget and reduce spending, the mayor wants to cut 29 city positions, all of them vacant. The proposed budget would produce a $3.4 million surplus for the following year, the mayor said.

Hardest hit could be the Fire Department, where Purzycki wants to cut 16 vacant positions, nearly 10 percent of its authorized strength. Doing this would require the return of rolling bypass, a controversial cost-cutting measure that puts an engine out of service during staffing shortages, which is most days, firefighters say. 

The mayor announced his proposal at his first budget address in City Council chambers Thursday night.

"This is a fairly lean budget with no room for salary increases, new programs, new community centers and economic development incentives," he said. "If we are to thrive, we must invest."

Purzycki said he is taking a multiyear approach to budgeting the city, cutting now to eliminate projected deficits in future years. When he walked in the door in January, the mayor said the city was already $14 million “in the hole."

Contributing to that was:

• $6.7 million in city employee raises approved by then-Mayor Dennis P. Williams. 
• At least $6.5 million for workers compensation claims related to firefighters injured in the Canby Park blaze, a circumstance for which the city lacked insurance.
• $2 million over budget for police and fire overtime.

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To pay for this, the city had dipped into its "unassigned fund balance," essentially its reserve. The city's current bond ratings are steady, but bond rating agencies have warned officials that if "undisciplined and unregulated" spending continues, the bond rating will drop, city officials said.

In addition, financial burdens that are expected to carry into fiscal year 2018 include: 

• A projected $1.2 million increase in employee and retiree health care benefits for the next year.
• The loss of $1.4 million from the city's right-turn-on-red camera program because the General Assembly passed legislation last year that limits red-light camera usage (plus $800,000 in refunds for drivers who were wrongly ticketed).
• A decrease of $3 million in city wage tax revenue as projected by the Wilmington Economic and Financial Advisory Council.

“We can get by in 2018 with no increase at all, but you will see that the consequences in the out years would be fiscally devastating without the moderating effect of an early decrease,” he said.

Costs and cuts

The proposed property tax increase, when applied to a home in the Brandywine Hills community assessed at $100,000, would increase the annual property tax by $140, or $11.67 a month. City properties have not been assessed since 1983.

Property tax was last raised in fiscal year 2015 by 5 percent. Before that, it was raised 10 percent in fiscal year 2011 and 15 percent in fiscal year 2010. This year, fiscal year 2017, property owners pay $1.86 per $100 of assessed value.

Under Purzycki’s plan, the average Wilmington resident would pay an additional $1.81 on a monthly water bill. The increase was strongly recommended by the city’s independent Water/Sewer Citizens Advisory Council, the mayor said. Stormwater rates will remain the same.

The water and sewer rates haven't changed since fiscal year 2015, when they were both raised 5 percent. They went two years without increases under Williams' administration.

The following 29 positions would be eliminated: 

• Two in the Mayor's Office (economic development researcher and administrative assistant), plus salary reductions, saving $272,000.
• Two staff attorneys in the Law Department, plus salary reductions, saving $335,000.
• One parking regulations enforcement officer in the Finance Department, saving $52,375.
• Two public works employees, saving $127,382.
• One project manager in the Parks and Recreation Department, saving $103,513.
• 16 firefighter positions in the Fire Department, saving $1.2 million.
• Five patrol officers in the Police Department, saving $454,551.

Public safety cuts

Purzycki suggested eliminating positions in the Fire Department at a time when firefighters say they are understaffed. The department is 22 positions down from its authorized strength of 172, Fire Chief Michael Donohue said at a public safety committee meeting this week.

Staffing under Purzycki's proposal would be reduced to 156 firefighters. The mayor said most of the positions on the chopping block should already have been removed. In 2012, the city accepted a federal grant that increased firefighting positions by 13, but when the grant ended in 2014, the positions remained.

Purzycki's move to return to rolling bypass isn't popular with fire personnel.

"I'm shocked," said Kevin Turner, president of the IAFF 1590 union. "[Rolling bypass] is a public safety hazard, and being understaffed is a safety hazard. ... We were budgeted for 172 firefighters. That's what we need."

For months, firefighters and their loved ones have protested rolling bypasses. It's a sore subject. The nearest fire truck was out of service the day of the Sept. 24 Canby Park fire that took the lives of three firefighters. No evidence has shown that rolling bypass was to blame for their deaths, but advocates say the practice is a safety hazard for residents and fire personnel.

The city claims rolling bypass does not significantly impact response time. The mayor said the practice is necessary and equitable: The closed engine would rotate throughout the city instead of permanently closing one particular engine, a practice that was adopted last year.

Purzycki also told The News Journal that the firefighter union agreement’s scheduling requirements are inefficient and cause the conditions that lead to overtime. Firefighters work 24-hour shifts followed by 72 hours off. If a firefighter calls in sick for a workday, that person ends up taking a week off, officials said.

“It seems to encourage excessive sick time use,” Purzycki said.

Purzycki said if the department changed its shift setup, he would be able to have all engines running all the time. The firefighter union contract has been expired since last summer. Purzycki said he wants to renegotiate it.

Since January, the city has been using $200,000 in state funding to keep all engines open on a temporary basis.

City Councilman Bob Williams, a former volunteer firefighter, said cuts to the fire department give him "serious anxiety." The District 7 rep, who requested state funds last year to keep all engines open, said he is concerned for the students at the Charter School of Wilmington which is "the furthest point away from Station #6," he said.

"Eliminating that engine and reducing another engine puts kids' lives in danger should a fire break out," he said. "A ladder would get there, but a ladder doesn't bring water... You can't put lives in danger to save a dollar."

The Police Department would lose five officer positions, leaving them with 314 officers.

Like the Fire Department, the Police Department accepted consecutive federal grants that increased its numbers from 289. But when the grants expired, the grant-funded positions were not eliminated, city officials said. The reduction will not affect public safety, the Mayor's Office said.

Councilwoman Loretta Walsh, chair of the public safety committee, said elimination of positions that originated through grants is reasonable.

"Each chief promised that hard money wouldn't need to be used to fund these positions, and they haven't been," she said.

Renegotiating union agreements for city employees could save the city money, Purzycki said.

Police officers get 20 “shooting days” when they are unavailable for duty, the mayor said. In the Public Works Department, trash collectors work on a “task system,” so they are paid for eight hours of work even if they completed their assignments in less than that.

The mayor said he believes the current schedules were agreed upon “in good faith,” but it’s not working.

“In the interest of more efficiency and economically run city departments, we must fairly and vigorously negotiate more equitable work schedules,” he said. “Frankly, no one can seriously defend the status quo.”

City Council President Hanifa Shabazz said she will keep an open mind as City Council holds hearings on the budget proposal. Council will vote on the final budget on May 18.

"I'm looking forward working collectively with the mayor's administration to come up with solutions that will continue to allow Wilmington to thrive," she said.

The city’s health care plan offers city employees three options, with co-pays as low as $5 and prescription costs as low as $10, officials said.

Purzycki said the plan, in which 82 percent of city employees are enrolled, is “too generous and too expensive.”

The mayor suggested making the city plan more like that of the state. State employees pay 13 percent of costs whereas city employees currently pay as little as 4 percent, Purzycki said. State co-pays are two to six times higher than in the city, and emergency rooms visit co-pays are $150 through the state, versus $50 in the city.

Removing the disparities would save the city about $1.5 million, Purzycki said. The mayor added that the majority of employees don’t take advantage of preventative health screenings like colonoscopies and mammograms, which he said leads to higher costs down the road.

“We will ask our employee unions to help us curb these escalating costs to avoid future layoffs, which will be unavoidable unless we do something about this now,” he said.

Purzycki's vision

The mayor is introducing a series of initiatives to be launched soon.

The administration will announce an area of the city that will become a neighborhood stabilization zone. The pilot program will fulfill a campaign promise, with a coordinated effort from officials in the police, licenses and inspections, public works, law and other departments. Officials will partner with state agencies and nonprofit groups to build up housing stock.

The city's search for a new police chief is winding down, officials said. New leadership and data-driven strategies will get more officers on the street, the mayor said. Data-driven analytics will benefit other departments too, by holding managers accountable and informing future budgeting, the administration said.

Other efforts will improve quality of life in the city, the mayor said. A 311 call center will start coordinating citizen requests for service. Workers will target city gateways to clean up trash and debris and create a better first impression for visitors. Officials will work to refurbish struggling city parks, including Eden Park; Father Tucker Park; and Rodney Square, which the mayor hopes to infuse with green space.

"I did not run for mayor to maintain the status quo," Purzycki said. "Our first obligation is to the health of the city – its financial health, its operational health and its spiritual health. I invite you to join me to do bold, permanent things."

Contact Christina Jedra at (302) 324-2837 or cjedra@delawareonline.com.

Purzycki's cost-saving measures

• A reduction of $1.28 million in debt service payments after City Treasurer Velda Jones-Potter refinanced the city's outstanding bond debt
• A $475,000 drop in fees for trash disposal to the Cherry Island Landfill
• A $300,000 reduction in the cost of animal control services