The proverbial time bomb ticks away

If it goes off on May 17, the explosion may be garbage and unfulfilled city services.

As an impending strike looms less than two weeks away, city leaders continue looking at alternatives to avert a walkoff but so far the only immediate plan - to institute a $10 per household municipal fee - does not appear to have much support from city council.

What does the average citizen think? A good question with not so clear an answer. The majority of a dozen or so residents spoken too Wednesday either do not

stay up with current events enough to know what is going on, do not

want to comment publicly or simply just do not care.

That might change as the garbage backs up, the possibility of the interruption of city services draws near or residents see a fee increase on their water bills. If citizens do not at least talk to their councilmen or attend next week's meeting, the elected officials will be left making a decision for the community.

The AFSCME local 771, which includes employees in the city's street department, sanitation, flood, water, sewer, police dispatchers, income tax, water collection office and the meter maid, issued notice Tuesday of its plans to hit the picket lines at 6 a.m. May 17 unless issues between the union and the city are resolved.

The workers plan to picket the city building, the city garage, the waste water treatment plant and the water filtration plant, according to the notice.

The biggest issue is last week's layoff of 10 municipal employees that included eight AFSCME workers - 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.

In addition, two non-union administrative employees were also be laid off - the assistant code enforcement officer and the facilities manager. The vacant position of economic development director will not be filled.

One union position may be saved by filling a vacant position in the dispatching department.

Though no one knows exactly what it will take to avoid a labor halt, Council President Jim Tordiff has some ideas that he hopes could do so, as well as help the city maintain vital services in the sanitation department.

Tordiff and Councilman Chuck O'Leary have drafted an ordinance that would implement a temporary $10 per household municipal fee that would generate between $500,000 and $600,000 per year. The ordinance would be removed if later actions were implemented such as a voter-authorized income tax increase or council's decision to change the reciprocity income tax agreement with neighboring communities.

However, Tordiff would like to attach some conditions to the plan. If adopted, three sanitation employees would be brought back to work on the condition that they work at the same pace that they do now. Once their route is completed, the employees would then go into a labor pool and be used on other projects in the city and be paid from that particular department.

This way only approximately half their day's salary would come from the sanitation fund and the rest could be offset by the revenue generated from the fee. Some of this extra time could also be used to pick up, for a fee, chairs, couches and other items that are not covered by household waste, he said.

"I know it will be asked why I would not sponsor this municipal fee if the employees won't go along with this plan. I am not saying I won't" Tordiff said. "I think the citizens need to see we are helping ourselves too. We are not just asking for something."

Union President Joe Johnson said that the union felt it had to issue the notice but that he is optimistic that the members will vote against a strike if Tordiff's plan is adopted.

"If a user fee is adopted by council and they start to bring union members back to work, I think we could avoid a strike," he said."I just want people to support this user fee. I believe they will look outside in a couple of days and see that we have to do something. We can't do without these people."

Though it will still appear on the agenda next week, the legislation did not receive favorable recommendation from the Ironton Finance Committee Wednesday. Councilmen Richard Price and Brent Pyles voted no while O'Leary voted to give it a favorable recommendation.

Councilman Jesse Roberts indicated that he does not support the legislation and does not believe it has enough support to pass. He did emphasize that it is up to the citizens to attend the meetings and talk to their representatives so that their voices are heard.

In the meantime, union leaders want people to understand city services will suffer.

"Right now services are being hurt drastically," Johnson said. "To do the blacktopping today, they had to pull people from the water distribution department. There was not enough people in streets to do it."

In what may be the most visible effect of the layoffs, garbage collection will quickly fall behind. Already two days behind in some areas, if the layoffs continue for another week or two the collections will be at least a week behind schedule, Johnson said.

"The plain and simple of it, we will have two weeks worth of garbage to pick up at once," he said. "We just won't be able to make it near as far."

Tordiff also indicated that he plans to sponsor legislation that would bring back the assistant water clerk. That fund is not in financial trouble and the position is absolutely crucial to the operation of the city, he said.

"One person cannot do that job. (The water clerk) is going to suffer and the citizens are going to suffer," Tordiff said. "It takes two people to do that job."