Kansas City plans to furlough employees, but officials call for even more cuts
A Kansas City Council committee voted Wednesday to require many city employees to take furloughs in varied lengths of time — the more money they make, the more unpaid time they’ll have to take.
But those proposed cuts, as well as those the City Council already approved, aren’t enough to meet the goal of cutting $50 million this fiscal year, warned Acting City Manager Earnest Rouse.
The full City Council is expected to decide on the furloughs Thursday.
The furloughs are just one piece of the city’s efforts to cut the budget in the face of a steep drop in revenues brought on by the spread of coronavirus.
The furloughs will save almost $1.5 million this fiscal year, which runs through April 30, Rouse told the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee. The city could have saved more — $2.2 million — if it hadn’t exempted some positions, including public safety and health departments.
“We have a responsibility to try and ensure this city government remains as solvent as it can,” Rouse said.
Last week, the council cut the budgets of most departments by 4.5%, and cut police and fire departments by 2.25%, to save $23.6 million.
The cuts are in response to a drop in some city revenues because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without cuts to the police and fire budgets, furloughing workers and restricting hiring, the city expected to be in a $202 million hole by the end of April 2026.
Employees would have the option to take the furlough in as small as four-hour increments.
Committee chair Kathryn Shields said government areas outside of public safety are taking greater hits.
“We can’t just have our non-public safety departments be absorbing all of these cuts,” Shields, 4th District at-large, said. “It’s something that all of our departments, including the police … we all have to come to grips with this.”
Last week, the full council voted to cut vacant and customer service positions, stop nonessential travel and cut back on capital maintenance projects. The committee also froze hiring for positions making more than $15 an hour.
Rouse said the city is going to look at every contract and labor agreement to find areas for more cuts.
The city also has to cut about 3% of the remaining payroll for the rest of this fiscal year and will institute a hiring freeze.
Shields said the city fell short of its goal of cutting $50 million in part because it didn’t deduct as much from the police or fire departments and because it continued to provide 2% raises across the board.
“It’s staff as much as council that has not wanted to make hard decisions,” Shields said.
Rouse said officials are looking for cuts that are least burdensome for employees.
Building audit
In another money-saving move, the committee sent a resolution to the council that will direct the city auditor to examine how the city manages its real estate, with the idea that employees in leased buildings could be moved to empty space in City Hall.
Police buildings and fire department’s office space will also be included.
The audit will include a look at how space is used, the cost of moving employees and whether the buildings could be leased or sold.
An initial look would be presented Sept. 17, and the full report is due Dec. 2.
All 12 council members and Mayor Quinton Lucas supported the resolution.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 4:51 PM.
