Tt post mar 22 2016 c

How is Toledo always so broke?

Mar 22, 2016 Blade story

[The mayor] would offer no hint as to how the [financial] shortfall would be resolved but promised there would no city employee layoffs.

Mar 11, 2016 Blade story

Councilman [Waniewski] urges mayor to freeze city workers’ pay.

Mayor Hicks-Hudson, who enjoyed strong union support last year during her campaign, said she wants to make Toledo more efficient.

She said city wages must remain competitive with other municipalities.

Union leaders were not pleased to hear of Mr. Waniewski’s request Thursday.

“Why does the councilman feel that, every time there is an issue like that, the city workers have to take the hit? Especially Local 7, who are the lowest paid, but 95 percent of our workers live in the city,” said Don Czerniak, president of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 7.

“We are still trying to catch up from the [Mike] Bell administration, when all our employees lost all that money,” Mr. Czerniak said. “They are wondering why people won’t come to work for the city.”

Local 7 is the city’s largest union with 835 members. Its contract expires June 30, 2017.

The contracts of the four Toledo police and fire unions, representing rank-and-file officers and command officers, each expire on Dec. 31. 2017. The contract for AFSCME Local 2058, the city’s supervisory and technical union, expires May 31, 2018.

Mar 13, 2016 Blade story

This year the city will transfer between $10 million and $11 million from the capital budget to the general fund to avoid police and fire layoffs.

Mar 6, 2016 Blade op-ed

Adoption of Issue 2 would enable the city to end the pernicious practice of shifting money from its capital budget to its general fund to meet daily expenses, notably paying police and fire salaries.

Voters approved that transfer during a budget emergency in 2010; even after Toledo’s ostensible recovery from the recession, city officials have not ended the policy, skimping on spending for road repair and other capital improvements.

Two-thirds of Toledo’s general-fund budget goes to personnel costs. Seven out of eight jobs funded by the budget are in public safety — police and fire protection and courts. Few Toledoans would suggest that the city should have fewer police officers and firefighters, or that their pay should be cut.

My Mar 8, 2016 comment

Toledo, Ohio:

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	1970	2015	change	% change
population	383,818	281,031	-102,787	-26.78 %
police officers	730	631	-99	-13.56 %
residents per officer	526	445	+81	+15.40 %
firefighters	558	490	-68	-12.19 %
residents per firefighter	687	574	+113	+16.45 %
square miles	84	84	0	0.00 %

What's the logical reason for the rate in decline for police and fire not aligning with the rate of decline for Toledo's population?

Or what's the reason for not using the 1970 ratios of residents to police officers and firefighters in 2016?

Approximately 10,000 EMS runs occurred in 1970 with a population of 383,818. That was approximately one EMS run for every 38 residents.

Then in 2005, Toledo had nearly 40,000 EMS runs with a population of 301,285. That's approximately one EMS run for every 7.5 residents.

In 2010, the Toledo fire department had 44,984 EMS runs, and the census showed Toledo's population to be 287,208. That's one EMS run for every 6.4 residents.

How many EMS runs in 2015? With the spike in opioid-based overdoses in recent years, I'll guess around 50,000 EMS runs. If close, and with Toledo's population now around 280,000, that would be one EMS run for every 5.6 residents.

Oct 30, 2011 Blade story

The city's fire department used all its overtime budget and more this year by August, spending $3.9 million. And last month, city finance officials predicted the fire department would burn through an additional $1.2 million in overtime by year's end -- because of the minimum staffing clause in the city's labor contract with its firefighters' union.

The Toledo Police Department does not have a minimum staffing clause.

Mar 13, 2016 comment by MsArcher:

... according to the union contract, the fire department has a minimum manning requirement which means it doesn't matter how many firefighters they employ, they have to have so many on the job at any time. From a Blade story in January 2015:

"The contract with Toledo Firefighters Local 92 grants 0.75 percent annual raises for the three-year agreement and increases the department’s “minimum manning” requirement from 103 to 107. It will go up to 110 on Jan. 1, 2017."

So even if they have fewer firefighters, they have to pay to have 107 on staff every day, even if it means overtime. And in 9 months, that 107 will go up to 110, even though the population is going down. This protects their jobs, increases their union due revenue and 'protects' the citizens.

And about the increase in EMS runs with a declining population? MsArcher said:

What are people doing? Call 9-1-1 for any and everything that happens, which generates a call, which takes time.

And why do fire departments respond? Because it makes their call volumes go up, so that they can justify an increase in minimum manning.

So it is not an aging population, it is the mis-utilization of a government service.

Mar 18, 2016 Burris column

... hire a managerial consultant, with experience in other cities — one from outside of this city. His job would be to work for the next two years with the mayor on reorganizing city government, eliminating cronyism and featherbedding, and, generally, to tell the mayor the truth, not what she wants to hear.

But Toledo's problems have been slowly growing for decades, and now these problems are rooted so deep that it would take far more than two years to make any significant changes. It might take a generation. Burris's idea makes sense only in a video game.

What will really happen? The usual. City officials will feed us their template-driven fear-mongering. We will get increases in taxes, fees, and assessments. And Toledo's population will continue to decline,

But one bright spot exists: the rate of population decline appears to be slowing.