Proposed layoffs at Children Services affect level of confidence, morale

Children Services officials say no to loan; council questions whether 40 workers actually expendable.
Hagelberg, Kymberli, Akron Beacon Journal, Nov. 7, 2006.

Summit County Children Services officials Monday said thanks, but no thanks to County Council's offer of a $4 million loan to avoid planned layoffs.

Children Services Board President Cindy S. Johnson told council members that the money wasn't needed because the agency had discovered 40 jobs that are expendable.

"Are you telling me that if the levy had passed (today) you would still be laying off 40 people?" asked Councilman Nick Kostandaras, D-Richfield.

"Yes," Johnson replied.

The question posed to Johnson was part of a lengthy, sometimes heated exchange between Children Services officials and County Council members who oppose the agency's plan to cut the staff by about 12 percent, mainly in its clerical, kitchen and support staffs.

To avoid the job losses, council members a week ago offered a loan from the county's rainy day fund to allow time for the agency to pass a levy in 2007 before its current funding expires.At its committee meeting Monday, council members voted to recommend the issue for a second reading.

The address to council, which included remarks by Johnson, Social Services Director Deb Forkas and Chief Operating Officer/Acting Executive Director Katerina Papas, was the second time in the day the agency made its case for the bottom line.

At an earlier press conference, Johnson said the loan was appreciated but not needed.

"We felt that such a loan would encourage unnecessary spending," she said. "It could also result in an increase to our levy request, which is contrary to our promise to the taxpayers."

The agency last month adopted a $52 million budget that includes layoffs and expense cuts that will increase its financial surplus from $19 million to $29 million.

If a new levy isn't passed in 2007, Finance Director Gary Binns said the agency will be about $12 million short in 2008.

"In addition, (the loan) delays the inevitable," Johnson said, "but does not guarantee a levy passage."

At the committee meeting, council members quizzed Johnson and Papas about specific details of the agency's work force and were unsatisfied with the answers.

They wanted to know facts from how many people were hired, have left or retired in the last year to how many employees might retire within a year.

"Come on, nobody knows?" Councilman Tim Crawford, D-Norton, asked when Papas and Johnson said they could get him the numbers later.

"You're telling me you're going to lay off 40 people and you don't know," Crawford said. "This is Management 101, folks."

Papas' plans for the agency's kitchen, which will close to save $200,000 a year and cut three jobs, drew surprise from council President Clair Dickinson.

Papas told Dickinson the kitchen has been catering meetings for the agency board, outside county agencies and community groups since Children Services stopped housing children more than two years ago.

"These people come in every day and cook food?" Dickinson asked Papas. "Who do they cook it for?"

"I don't know," Papas said. "I know what they do. . . . It was not my choice to keep them all that time."

"Seems to me you could have phased them out the day you took over," Dickinson said.

Children Services planned to reduce its staff through attrition over three years. The cutbacks are said to include every department, but no specific details have been released.

The agency employs 456 employees: 331 are members of a union and 125 are classified as management. Of that number, Papas said the cuts represent 58 percent union and 42 percent nonunion employees.

"Summit County Children Services is doing what any responsible person would do," Johnson told the council. "We are reducing our budget and living within our means."

When asked by Pete Crossland, D-Akron, whether she had "100 percent support," Johnson would not say she was speaking on behalf of the entire board in rejecting the money.

No vote was taken on the issue, Johnson said.

Councilman Mike Callahan, R-at-large, offered: "Just to cut through the rhetoric, are you standing here and saying that you don't want this money? You don't need this money? And you won't use it if we pass the resolution?"

Not satisfied with Johnson's responses, Callahan said, "Are you saying you don't intend to answer?"

Johnson replied: "I'm saying it would probably be more appropriate to answer you when council passes the resolution."

Robin Schenault, president of Communications Workers of America Local 4546, said the cuts are about killing the union.

"I want to thank Nick Kostandaras for calling this what it is," she said. "It's union busting."

She said the board and Papas are uninformed and uninvolved.

"If the board examined its own conduct, it would understand why the public has no confidence in it, and why the staff has no confidence," she said.

Council members could vote as early as Monday on the loan.Papas said employees affected by the layoffs will be notified within the next two weeks.

Memo:
THE ISSUE: Summit County Children Services Board announces that it will refuse a $4 million county loan to prevent the layoff of about 12 percent of its staff.
WHAT HAPPENED: In October, CSB approved a budget that included 51 layoffs and other cuts just in case a levy is not passed before current funding runs out in 2007.
WHAT'S NEXT: Those employees who are on the layoff list will be notified within two weeks.