Beginning Monday, the city of Columbus will enact a series of cost-saving measures in the wake of a projected sales tax revenue downturn in the coming months, the city council decided unanimously during a special-call meeting Tuesday morning.

The measures include work hour reduction, pay cuts and a hiring freeze, which are expected to save the city at least $1.56 million, Mayor Robert Smith said. The policies were prompted by a projected 40-percent drop of the city’s sales tax revenue as the COVID-19 pandemic rocks local businesses, he said.

“(Implementing the policies) is probably one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made,” Smith said at the meeting, “especially when you are dealing with the livelihood of employees.”

This will be the second straight year the city has implemented drastic cost-saving measures. The council suspended promotions and new hires last year to avert a financial crisis, which could have left the city out of cash by October. It ended its fiscal year with $1.2 million in its general fund balance and lifted the months-long freeze in January.

But this time, in addition to the hiring freeze, all city department travels are banned until July 31, and most city employees, including the mayor and council members, are taking 25-percent pay cuts until then.

Instead of 40 hours a week Monday through Thursday, city employees, except for police officers and firefighters, will work four 7.5-hour days four days per week starting next Monday, according to Smith. They will receive a 25-percent cut in paychecks, since they only will be working 30 hours weekly through July 31.

The mayor’s salary is $83,596 a year (which will be cut by $5,224.75 over the next three months), and all council members make an annual $17,500 (which will be cut by $1,093.75 each for a total of $6,562.50), the city’s Chief Administrative Officer David Armstrong told The Dispatch.

Employee pay cuts, alone, are projected to save the city $237,109, according to Smith.

Hiring freeze

But the biggest save, Smith said, would come from the suspension of all new hires across city departments, which will remain in effect until Dec. 31.

The hiring freeze on the city’s police, fire and public works departments will leave a total of 31 positions open for the rest of the year, saving an estimated $1.3 million, Smith said.

The police department, which is budgeted for 64 officers, will be allowed a maximum of 54 officers. Fire and Rescue will be allowed 60 of the 70 budgeted officers, and public works will operate with 53 of its 64 budgeted employees.

Faced with the hiring freeze, some department heads are adjusting to the new norm.

The police department currently has 53 officers and will seek to fill the vacant slot by transferring in a certified officer, Police Chief Fred Shelton told The Dispatch. The department can also rely on its team of 20 reserve officers, who work part-time when needed, he said.

“I don’t have any concern,” Shelton said. “Our job remains the same.”

For Fire Chief Martin Andrews, hiring a full staff of 70 firefighters has long been a struggle. Even before the maximum staffing level was cut back, Andrews said the department, which now has 59 firefighters, had troubles reaching its full capacity.

“We had not even been able to hire 70,” Andrews said. “We are not cutting services or anything, we are just not going to be able to hire the number we were projected to hire this year.”

A limited staff will certainly lead to overtime shifts, Andrews said, but the department will devise a plan to keep the overtime down.

As part of the cost-saving measures, the department will also cut down work hours by allowing four commanding officers to work a 24-hour shift every two weeks without extra pay, Andrews said. This way, the department doesn’t have to pay regular firefighters overtime for working those shifts, he said.

The policy could save the city $10,500, Smith said.

Council reaction

Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box told The Dispatch the pay cuts, although painful, are warranted given the projected revenue downturn.

“It’s never a good thing to cut back on employee hours,” he said. “It’s people’s livelihood. But it’s just something we had to do.”

The pandemic, he said, may hit the city harder than the city’s financial crisis would have last year. And the city’s scale of cost-saving policies is bigger than last year.

“We just don’t know what’s going to happen with this (pandemic). I think it probably is a bigger crisis than what we had last year,” he said.

“We had a travel restriction last year, but we had people tell us they needed to go (for various purposes), so we just gave in to it,” Box added. “And it’s not fair to cut your employee hours and the city council (and the mayor) not take a cut too.”

Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard said he wished the council would have allowed the public works department to remain 40 hours a week.

“They need to operate fully,” he said.

Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin told The Dispatch he hopes residents will be understanding. Reduced work hours for city employees, he said, means limited and delayed services.

“When we (implement) these cost-saving measures to save money, probably some of these services (the public) are used to getting … are going a little bit away,” he said. “When they come in, they need a ditch cleaned out, and we get there in a day or two … it may be delayed a little bit more than that.”

Businesses allowed to reopen with restrictions

The city council also unanimously passed a resolution to comply with Gov. Tate Reeves’ “Safer At Home” order last week, which allowed some previously deemed non-essential businesses to reopen with certain restrictions.

Retail stores can now open but have to cap the number of customers allowed in the store at half their normal capacity, according to the resolution. Stores have to frequently clean high-contact surfaces, practice social distancing and provide hand sanitizers to all customers upon entry.

Golf courses and tennis clubs are now allowed to open with restrictions.

Complying with the governor’s order, gyms, dance studios, barber shops, hair and nail salons and tattoo parlors will remain closed to the public but are allowed to offer drive-through, curbside and delivery of retail sales.

The city also renewed the curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., which was put in place Tuesday night and is expected to expire on May 11.

Yue Stella Yu was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.

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