PORT ANGELES — The city of Port Angeles drastically cut pay for new seasonal workers last week in light of continued drops in revenue.
Until July 3, new hires were paid $14.51 an hour. They now start at $9 an hour, with few exceptions.
The move comes about three weeks after the city cut the annual duration of seasonal employment from six months to four months to reduce its unemployment insurance premiums.
The city now hires additional people to work the remaining two months.
The change resulted in about six layoffs, said city Human Resources Manager Bob Coons.
All the layoffs occurred in the city’s Parks Division, he said, where about 80 percent of the seasonal workers are employed.
Seasonal workers who were up to the new four-month limit were replaced with the same number of people, who will work for the remaining two months.
Coons said the seasonal workers in the Parks Division who are still making $14.51 an hour will return next year at the lower rate.
He said they will get a 50 cent-per-year raise afterward.
Some of the seasonal workers may not have the lower rate when they return.
Coons said the more highly skilled seasonal workers — such as those in the wastewater treatment plant — may not be affected.
“With the high-level skilled jobs, we are likely to keep those at [$14.51],” he said.
The Parks Division has 15 positions for seasonal workers — a decrease from 18 last year.
In addition, there are also two seasonal positions in the treatment plant, two on street maintenance and one in the water department.
Coons said the city will save between $20,000 and $30,000 a year with these changes.
The goal is to avoid layoffs of year-round employees, Coons said. That’s why, he added, that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is not opposing the new rules.
Coons said the changes are part of the city’s “continuing efforts to save money going into the 2010 budget. We try to do everything we can to save money here and there and hopefully avoid layoffs.”
Sales tax revenue
The city had projected a drop in sales tax revenue of 10 percent this year when compared with 2008.
But city revenue from sales tax may be between $100,000 and $150,000 below that estimate at the end of the year.
Reduced employment and pay for seasonal workers is the second move the city has made to cut labor costs.
It has already reduced the hours residents can pay bills at City Hall to reduce overtime.
City Manager Kent Myers said the new cuts keep the city from eliminating seasonal workers altogether.
“We’re trying to make these cuts so we maintain seasonal employees,” he said.
Corey Delikat, parks and streets superintendent, said the changes should do little to reduce park maintenance since the available positions aren’t being reduced any further, just the amount of months each person can work.
“It just makes it a little trickier,” he said.
“We always have problems covering everything anyway.”
Delikat said the city’s park sponsorship program has allowed the city to offset reductions in parks staff at the beginning of the year.
So far, eight neighborhood parks have been sponsored and are now maintained by volunteers.
User groups of play fields have also stepped up by doing some of the maintenance work, Delikat said.
“We’ve had a real big volunteer effort this year,” he said.
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
