Tuesday, August 05, 2003

By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

With worries intensifying about the city's teetering budget, Pittsburgh City Council yesterday canceled its four-week August recess to hold weekly budget strategy sessions with administrators to discuss layoffs, service cuts and the shutdowns of city facilities.

Late last week, Mayor Tom Murphy's office began a new round of planning for massive budget cuts to help close the city's $60 million deficit, expected to jump to $81 million in 2004.

Even with the cuts, which could include 500 layoffs, the administration says the city will still be broke by the end of 2003 without assistance from state government.

Murphy hoped to bridge the $60 million shortfall with state approval of new taxes and pension aid, but with the General Assembly and the Rendell administration at an impasse over statewide budget issues, it's impossible to tell when or if the state will act.

City Council President Gene Ricciardi said the special council meetings, starting Aug. 13, will be held to take testimony on budget planning from Murphy and city department directors. The testimony should focus on the effects of budget cuts and layoffs on city residents and personnel, he said.

The three meetings are also meant as a shot at the Legislature.

"It's a message that we all need to get back to the table and get back to work and bring everybody back to Harrisburg," Ricciardi said. "It's a sense of crisis. There's a sense of urgency."

Leaders from the city police union recently said Murphy told them that 150 officers could be among the 500 layoffs, and a layoff announcement could be made today. But Operations Director Robert Kennedy said yesterday that no announcement was scheduled, and planning for layoffs and other cuts was continuing.

Police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. said yesterday he was unaware of any targeted number of police layoffs, but acknowledged that a cutback in personnel was probably inevitable.

"It doesn't look good right now," he said, "but I really don't know."

Top police and city officials met Friday and plan to meet again to address the possibility of layoffs.

Asked what minimum level of staffing would be necessary to maintain safety in Pittsburgh, McNeilly said there have been no studies on the topic and hence no determination.

Discounting the specter raised by the Fraternal Order of Police that cutbacks would lead to a rise in street crime, McNeilly said the experiences in cities with similar populations and smaller or commensurate police forces -- including Buffalo, Tulsa, Oakland and Cincinnati -- did not support that theory.

"All I could do is point to those cities and say I don't see any mayhem in their streets. I guess it's just a matter of how well we do our jobs with what we've been given," McNeilly said.

According to Ricciardi, who has had budget strategy talks with the Murphy administration, huge police layoffs are planned. He said the layoffs would be in addition to a number of police who may retire this year because of health care cost increases that take effect in 2004.

Ricciardi said the jobs of all 202 school crossing guards also remain on the chopping block, but he has talked to Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent John Thompson and school board members about taking on some of the funding.

School district spokeswoman Pat Crawford said a crossing guard funding proposal has been made to the district, but would not discuss it. The board has a meeting scheduled tonight, but the proposal was not on the agenda.

According to City Clerk Linda Johnson-Wasler, council has never canceled its August recess. The idea came from Councilman Len Bodack, and it was approved during a closed-door session on the city's personnel changes yesterday morning.

"I did not see how we could walk away idly while the city faces this fiscal crisis," Bodack said.

Others echoed those remarks.

"These are very critical times we're facing," said council finance chair Sala Udin, who said he was canceling a car trip through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and other southern states to oversee the budget sessions.

Councilman William Peduto welcomed the extra sessions, but warned that layoffs and cutting services and facilities would save the city $25 million at most, still leaving a $35 million hole.

"It's a drop in the bucket, but the severity of it is very real," he said.

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