Come Saturday morning, Randy Taylor will have a new position with the city, but 10 of his fellow Ironton employees will not be as fortunate.

Taylor has worked for the city for nearly 20 years, 14 years in sanitation,

but he will be shifted to the water meter department beginning Saturday as part of a reshuffling as the city lays off 10 employees and cuts one position to help bridge a gap of more than $500,000 between revenue and expenses.

For many employees, the issue is much more personal than dollars and cents.

"We are not talking about 11 jobs," said Taylor, a father of three grown children. "We are talking about 11 families."

The bottom line remains that residents must decide if they want to lose services or dig deeper into their pocketbooks.

So far, council has chosen not to raise rates but that may have to change.

A municipal tax, income tax increases, service fees and other ideas were brought to the table Thursday as the Ironton City Council, Mayor John Elam, dozens of members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 771 and quite a few residents came together for a public forum to look at ways to raise revenues, while a strike next week remains a possibility.

Eight of the 51-member AFSCME union will be laid off - three employees in the sanitation department, three in the street department, a water department clerk and either the meter maid or a custodian once those two positions are combined. Two non-union administrative employees will also be laid off - the assistant code enforcement officer and the facilities manager. The vacant position of economic development director will not be filled.

Council Chairman Jim Tordiff opened the meeting by emphasizing that it is just a brainstorming session and that no action could be taken in the special session.

"The purpose of this meeting called last week was to provide an opportunity for the city's workforce and citizens to come share ideas that maybe have not been thought of or to add or subtract from an idea," Tordiff said. "Š We appreciate the turnout. Obviously a lot of people do care - as opposed to apathy. We are all in this together."

Union President Joe Johnson and Mayor Elam were just two of the vocal supporters of a temporary $10 per household municipal fee for all city residents that would generate between $500,000 and $600,000 each year. On the other hand, Tordiff continued his stance that it is time to ask the voters to increase the city's 1-percent income tax, but did say he could support this fee.

"In the past several weeks, I have discussed this with members of the community, whether retired, working here or elsewhere. Most said they would rather see a user fee," Johnson said. "Many said they don't pay income tax now and would like to pay their fair share."

Instead of adding the burden to those who already pay taxes, this would make everyone who uses city services pay their part, Johnson said. Mayor Elam reiterated these sentiments to a roaring applause from the standing-room-only crowd.

After the meeting, Johnson declined to comment on the possibility of a strike until next week. Last month, the union unanimously voted to authorize a strike but have not yet given the official notice that is required to begin the process.

During the two hour meeting, Tordiff outlined how the city's troubles go back to the 1980s when the federal government eliminated the federal revenue sharing program that cost Ironton $250,000 a year. The city "tightened the belt" and moved on, he said.

More recently, cities such as Ashland and Russell, Ky., have adopted income tax ordinances. People pay income taxes where they work. If there is no income tax, the individual pays where they live. The recent addition of income tax laws in neighboring communities has cost the city approximately $400,000 a year, Tordiff said.

The city has stayed afloat the past few years with one-time monies such as inheritance taxes, property sales and unforeseen governmental returns, without raising taxes or fees. The future may lie with the city's industrial park but with 80 percent of the city's total budget going towards salaries and benefits, now is time for a change, Tordiff said.

"It is simply my belief that voters ought to have a choice," he said. "I think it would be practically impossible for the citizens to pass an income tax increase if we hit them with a bunch of other user fees."

Floodwall employee and frequent sanitation worker Todd Davis countered that the residents would pay an extra $1 or $2 a month more to keep their services intact, which will not happen if three employees are laid off therefore eliminating a garbage truck route.

"To take sanitation and cut it down to two trucks, it just can't be done," he said. "It's impossible."

Much of the argument about the need for sanitation layoffs has centered on the fact that the employees work quickly so they can go home early but still get paid for eight hours. Davis emphasized that it nearly kills them to work that fast and is one of the sole benefits of that job. He invited any councilman to come jump on one of the trucks for a day so they could personally see that to make the men haul tons more garbage daily may literally kill them.

"It will put those guys in their graves," Davis said. "To cut the workforce is the worst thing you can do. Services are going to suffer. The people are going to suffer."

Councilman Richard Price said that neither the user fee nor the income tax will really keep sanitation from losing money and that he would like to see the mayor and the union come up with a plan to maintain services at its present level.

Other ideas for generating revenue proposed included removing the reciprocity agreement so individuals who work elsewhere would also have to pay some city income tax, renting parking spaces on public streets, charging additional fees for waste pickup that goes beyond just garbage such as grass and old furniture, providing water pickup for more than 140 customers in the city who use private services, switching to private waste collection all together, charging to replace street signs damaged in automobile accidents, charging for first responder calls like county funded EMS services

So, the chess game of trying to operate the city efficiently continues but for 10 employees, the stakes are their livelihoods and families.