Job Cuts in Lawrence

By Connor Bevans
June 8th, 2010

The tough financial climate continues to plague cities and towns across the Commonwealth. The city of Lawrence has had its fiscal problems well documented. And its path back to financial solvency will not be a steady march. We all know that.

Mayor William Lantigua has started the process with a controversial announcement that the city will have to dismiss nearly 200 municipal workers. We aren’t close enough to the city to know all the ins and outs of the proposal. But it can only be helpful to highlight some of their job creation/termination decisions so that people can see some of the trends behind the specific proposal.

Cuts to the city’s firefighters and patrol officers by 29 and 31 jobs, respectively, are really tough medicine. The impact on the neighborhoods may be devastating.

Some of the decisions to increase hiring and budgets may also seem quite puzzling.

Leading the list of puzzling decisions was the largesse that the Sewer Administration & Maintenance Division received. They will see their ranks swell from 12 to 22, in stark contrast to the Fire Department whose employment numbers dropped by a third. The Sewer Administration also saw a 90.66% increase in spending. While nearly every other area was forced to make hard decisions about their futures, this division caught a huge windfall, $547,420.11 in new salaries.

Increased spending did not stop at the Sewer Administration. The city of Lawrence created two new positions in the Department of Personnel, the Director of Personnel’s became a full time position, and there is a newly created Benefits Clerk. This department not only escaped cuts, its saw almost a doubling of its budget over the previous year (FY11 is 85.64% over the FY10 budget).

It would be wise for Lawrence visitors and residents to carry quarters with them from now. The city decided to add 3 new full-time meter maids to their ranks at the expense of $147,692.56 or a 347.71% increase over the previous years budget. The city also decided to hire a Temporary Meter Reader to the tune of $34,676.15. Does that suggest that the government is hoping to pay back part of the $34 million loan from Beacon Hill through parking tickets? Was this the right decision even as 60 firefighters and patrol officers lost their jobs?

All decisions in a receivership are difficult, and the need to eliminate over $6 million in salary for its workers will impact the municipal workforce deeply. But these numbers need to be out there so we can give the public a better understanding of what the decisions will mean for Lawrence. Many people will be scratching their heads about the depth of cuts to law enforcement, firefighters and teachers in favor of meter maids.

A complete copy of Lawrence’s FY2011 budget can be found here: http://www.cityoflawrence.com/Pages/LawrenceMA_Finance/FY11%20Budget.pdf