Starkville aldermen approved a series of measures Tuesday to cover nearly all of the $1.3 million that Mayor Lynn Spruill estimates the city will lose in sales tax revenue this fiscal year due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Starting Friday, the beginning of a new pay period, 47 of the city’s 306 employees (15 percent) will be furloughed until further notice. Sales tax revenue is part of the city’s general fund, and 35 furloughs from departments paid for by the general fund will save about $350,000, Spruill said. The remaining 12 furloughs will come from the sanitation, water and utilities departments, which are paid by the city’s enterprise fund.

“None of this is something any of us wanted to do,” Spruill said. “Our employees are our greatest asset, and for us to have to furlough them is the saddest day that I can think of that I’ve encountered, certainly since I’ve been involved in city government in any kind of way. We will make this as quick as we can.”

Spruill calculated the approximate savings amount for the furloughs with a tentative end date of July 31, the last day that the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) provides $600 per week per person to compensate for loss of employment due to the pandemic. The city will provide an additional $235 to its furloughed employees.

That amount, $835 per week, is more than some city employees receive while working, Spruill said, and they will keep their health insurance coverage because they will not be laid off.

Another approved cost-savings measure is a 20-percent pay cut for Spruill, the board of aldermen and all city department heads, also until further notice. With the exception of the sanitation and utilities department heads, the pay cuts will total $70,000 in general fund savings, Spruill said.

Spruill’s salary (an annual pay of $75,000) will be cut by $1,250 per month with this measure. The aldermen, now with an annual salary of $20,000, will see their pay slashed by roughly $333 per month.

The mayor initially proposed an additional $737,500 in budget cuts at Friday’s work session. Those included reduced gas and oil usage, forgoing training in some departments and choosing not to open the Moncrief Park pool or hire seasonal Parks and Recreation staff.

Since Friday, Spruill found even more cuts to make, including $15,000 from sidewalks and $15,000 from streets and drainage, she said. The budget amendments totaled $786,500.

Spruill said Friday the city might have to tap into $450,000 of the $1.5 million fund balance that is usually left over at the end of every fiscal year, but she decided at some aldermen’s encouragement to leave the proposed furloughs open-ended instead of limiting them to two pay periods. This move saves enough that the city will not need to touch the ending fund balance, she said Tuesday.

The 12 furloughs and two pay cuts for sanitation, water and utilities are necessary due to the extended absence of most of the Mississippi State University student population, Spruill told The Dispatch.

Opposition to the furloughs

The board voted unanimously for the budget amendments and 5-2 for the furloughs, pay cuts and the transition to unpaid administrative leave for city staff who are already on paid leave. Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn were the two dissenting votes.

Carver praised the measures as “proactive” and said his only reason for voting no was his opposition to the furloughs.

“I’ve had personal conversations with many of the employees that would be furloughed, and some of them are 20-year to 30-year employees,” he said.

Vaughn said his only objection was the fact the choices of whom to furlough are up to the department heads. He said he was concerned about “cherry-picking” based on personal biases and wanted the department heads to have an objective way to choose.

Spruill told The Dispatch she trusts the department heads to “have the best understanding of their department and who they believe will do the work we’ve tasked them to do under these trying circumstances.”

Former Oktibbeha County NAACP President Chris Taylor expressed his opposition to the furloughs and pay cuts during the meeting’s public comment period.

“When you cut the department (staff), the department head’s got to do more work,” he said.

The board later voted unanimously to extend the first round of cost-saving measures that passed at the April 7 meeting: to suspend pay raises the board approved for some city employees in September, suspend all travel and equipment purchases except for ongoing projects and enact a hiring freeze with the exceptions of two critical jobs.

Each measure was set to last until early June, and they will now last through the end of fiscal year 2020, or the end of September.

Ward 6 Alderman and Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins voted against the pay raise suspension on April 7, but he said Tuesday that the estimated loss of $1.3 million made it clear that budget cuts, including furloughs, are necessary.

The furloughed employees should “have as soft a landing as possible” with their $835 cushion and the $1,200 stimulus checks the federal government is currently distributing, Ward 2 Alderman and budget chairperson Sandra Sistrunk said.

“The cuts have been as low in terms of numbers of people as we could go and still feel like we were doing something that was financially responsible,” she said. “It hurts my heart to do this, but I don’t have any other solution.”

Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.

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