City budget crunch: Mayor freezes executive pay, including his

So says a news release just in from the city – and it says furloughs are on the way too (following the example of King County, which has implemented some to save $ – including today’s furlough day for the King County Council) – here’s the news release:

Mayor Greg Nickels said today that he has informed more than 100 senior city executives that they will have their salaries frozen at or rolled back to 2008 levels and that four executive offices will begin instituting furloughs for their employees.

“With the continued turmoil in the economy nationwide, we will face some difficult decisions to reduce our city budget and it is important that our executives lead by example,” said Nickels.

Department directors and executives, including the mayor, will forgo the 2009 cost-of-living adjustment of 4.5 percent, and their salaries will be frozen at 2008 levels.

The mayor also announced today that four executive offices will begin furloughs for employees whose salaries are not frozen. With the exception of clerical employees, workers in the Mayor’s Office, Finance Department, Office of Policy Management and Office of Intergovernmental Relations will take seven days without pay in 2009.

The furloughs and wage freezes are expected to save about $675,000 in 2009, helping to
minimize the number of layoffs that may be required.

The cost-cutting measure is part of an ongoing effort to reduce city expenses in the current economic downtown. Previously, Nickels asked departments to identify additional 2009 general fund reductions of up to 3 percent. The Mayor’s Office will begin reviewing the proposals next week, and discuss implementation with City Council.

The city will release its latest revenue forecast in early April. Sales tax revenues were down 8.5 percent in November 2008 and 11.4 percent in December 2008, compared to 2007. After the nation’s economy took a steep downturn last fall, the mayor and City Council worked together to adjust the 2009-2010 budget without cutting critical public safety or human services programs. The Council approved a 2009 general fund budget of $912.5 million.

celeste17 March 13, 2009 (11:22 am)

About time that the executive staff starts to feel the budget crunch. I get so tired of employees having to take a pay cut or get laid off and management gets raises or other compensation. Now if only we could get him out of his car and onto the bus or water taxi we could save even more money.

JoB March 13, 2009 (11:45 am)

i’d feel they were feeling the crunch a bit more if they took a pay cut… instead of just forgoing a raise..

JoB March 13, 2009 (11:46 am)

they are going to furlough employees who make much less.. while keeping their salaries… all in the name of saving us money?

Jo March 13, 2009 (12:06 pm)

“Mayor Greg Nickels said today that he has informed more than 100 senior city executives that they will have their salaries frozen at or rolled back to 2008 levels…”

He also said in the above…that they will have salaries frozen OR rolled back. Rolled back would be a pay cut, probably.

I’m wondering if the furlough also will apply to the senior executives? Possibly.

Jo March 13, 2009 (12:24 pm)

And…
I worked in Corporate America for many years, and anytime that my organization was faced with a buy-out or merger the first people to go were always senior and middle management.
.
I know it’s fun for some of you to automatically ‘mayor-bash,’ but, seems he’s taking a stand and doing something.

Valkyrie March 13, 2009 (12:36 pm)

I must applaud Greg Nickels. Maria Goodloe-Johnson got a pay raise over the summer. She now makes $264,000 per year. Way more than the mayor OR the governor makes. What do you think the chances are she’ll take a pay cut? Remember, this is the person who never loses sleep over District issues.

flowerpetal March 13, 2009 (1:30 pm)

In essence, those city execs are taking a pay cut. The 4.5% cola was in place and is now withdrawn. They were already seeing that cola on their January, February and early March pay checks.
In the big picture though, $675,000 is not much of a savings when one looks at the overall cuts that are needed to be made by the City.
For sure, there will be more news and cuts.

Sorry, comment time is over.