Call for shared sacrifice on City budget cuts

Early on during last Thursday night’s Finance and Audit Committee meeting, Ward 2 Councilperson Steve Thornbury issued a plea to all City employees/unions/departments to step forward voluntarily and share the sacrifice needed to balance the 2011 budget by the March 31 deadline. The Finance Committee is proposing deep personnel cuts in most City departments, but the two largest City departments by far, fire and police, are excepted from involuntary cuts because of minimum man requirements in their contracts. According to the City Auditor’s website, these two departments combined cost $14,058,680 or 65% of last year’s total expenditures of $21,488,050, an amount that exceeded total revenues of $19,911,737 by $1,576,313. Norwood is like most other municipalities in that the cost of police and fire departments together is the largest single budget expenditure.

To put some meat on these bones for our readers, we are publishing this year’s base fire and police salaries as set forth in their current contracts. These salaries may very well be in line with comparable police and fire departments.

2011 Police Base Salaries
Patrol on Appointment - $54,158.32
Patrol upon Certification - $57,543.81
Patrol I - 1 Year Experience - $60,928.41
Patrol II - 2 Years Experience - $64,313.61
Patrol III - 3 Years Experience - $67,698.50
Sergeant - $78,530.11
Lieutenant - $83,241.85

2011 Fire Base Salaries
Fire on Appointment - $47,913.81
Fire Certified - $54,759.24
Fire Certified W/EMT-P - $57, 497.19
Fire 1 - $58,120.12
Fire 1 W/EMT-P - $61,026.29
Fire 2 - $61,603.81
Fire 2 W/EMT - $64,683.96
Fire 3 - $65,026.33
Fire 3 W/EMT - $68,277.65
Fire 4 - $68,448.40
Fire 4 W/EMT - $72,343.45
Drive/ATO - $72,343.45
Engineer - $72,343.45
Prevention Specialist - $75,119.73
Paramedic II - $75,119.73
Lieutenant - $77,666.00
Captain - $81,951.91

We’re hoping some new concessions will be announced when The Finance Committee meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Council Chambers. The committee plans to present the 2011 Budget to City Council at tomorrow’s 7:30 p.m. regular meeting.