Radnor Downsizing

There is a very good article in the Main Line Suburban Life regarding downsizing in Radnor Township. This is unfortunate for the individuals involved but a necessary step in returning the Township to a sound financial position.

My conversations with a few Township employees centered on them saying "now I understand what you were going through" regarding the downsizings that I had lived through.

Main Line Suburban Life > News
Layoffs hit Radnor Township staff
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
By Sam Strike
Twelve Radnor Township employees were laid off on Friday and Monday because of budgetary reasons, the interim township manager said this week.Eight full-time and four part-time employees, including two directors, were let go from the engineering, parks and recreation, finance, community-development and administration departments.The layoffs are being accompanied by other expenditure reductions and changes in the township’s customer-service structure.According to interim manager John Granger, the changes will save the township about $1 million in 2010 and the years immediately following.But the reductions in payroll and other expenditures will only net the township about $280,000 this year because of the amount of money and benefits it has to pay out to the departing employees.One employee had accrued about $100,000 in unpaid leave time, for example. And laid-off employees will receive benefits and pay they are entitled to under their respective employment agreements, plus four weeks of additional pay and one month of additional health coverage.Only a couple of years ago the township constructed a 50,000-square foot, $11.6-million municipal building. Now, as part of a number of changes proposed by Granger, it will seek to rent out part of it — about two-thirds of the second floor — for a revenue source.There are currently 71 employees, including about 45 in the police department, who work in that building.Other changes proposed by Granger to the township’s Board of Commissioners, which approved the layoffs, include creating a customer-service area where citizens can conveniently interface for services in the parks and recreation, engineering, community development and police departments.The parks and recreation department will move from the building’s second to first floor to make it more accessible to residents who go there for program information and registration. It is part of Granger’s recommendations on “how the organization interacts with the public” — something that needs some adjustment, he said, in the building itself and in its computer systems and Web site.Other changes include modifications (read: reductions) to the life-insurance plans of some employees, reduction or elimination of the municipal building’s contracted cleaning service, reducing professional development for employees to a level of necessity, and reducing the block of cell-phone time the township buys for its employees.All of the above were part of a plan crafted by Granger and recently presented to the Board of Commissioners. There were some other recommendations that the commissioners have deferred, however, he said.At the July 20 public Board of Commissioners meeting, Granger will present further proposed changes, he said.Within six months Granger said that residents will experience better delivery of services than they did before. By a year’s time he predicts that citizens will no longer even have to come to the building to get licenses, permits and register children for township-run programs.A year from now, Granger said, the way the township interacts with its citizens and runs its internal workings and efficiencies will likely be “drastically different” from how it does now.Granger said that despite the layoffs, the township will continue to function as it has, stopping short of inferring that there may have been some redundancies in some areas of employment there.Granger would not provide the names of the laid-off employees but stated that assistant finance director Bill Martin will now be assistant township manager and planning manager Matt Baumann will now serve as the director of community development.Also, the number of building inspectors has been reduced to two from four.Granger said that he is very concerned about the morale of township employees during this time.“It is very sad and painful to lose employees. Unfortunately the worldwide economic downturn has hit Radnor just as it has many businesses and municipal governments,” said Tom Masterson, president of the Board of Commissioners.“We have and will continue to carefully evaluate the township’s operations and make decisions based upon our obligation to the taxpayers to deliver services in the most cost-effective way. I am confident Radnor will continue to deliver excellent services and that we will weather these difficult financial times stronger and more efficient,” Masterson wrote in an e-mail statement.Given the reductions implemented, including the layoffs, Granger said that the township may be able to craft a balanced budget next year without using money from its fund balance, or savings, which will have to be tapped into to balance 2009.“It is never easy to lay off employees and I know this is a very difficult time for those who have lost their jobs. The changes are part of a comprehensive plan to reduce operating costs over the next three years... I believe we still have some major decisions to make by July to reduce costs this year so we do not burn through $3 million of our fund balance as predicted,” said John Fisher, vice president of the Board of Commissioners.“If the economists are right, next year may prove worse for local governments as business tax proceeds either remain at their current lows or worse — fall even lower. My biggest concern remains with the sharp drop in revenue that could wipe out our fund balance entirely sometime next year. Loss of our fund balance means higher interest rates on our debt and could even mean that we literally run out of money in 2010. Running out of money is clearly not an option and a double-digit tax increase is not a good choice either. Cutting spending now is the only thing that makes sense, yet we collectively don’t seem to know how to change course,” Fisher wrote in an e-mail statement.