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Department heads respond

Marietta departments offer alternatives to possible staff cuts

By Michelle Dillon 10 min read

Five city of Marietta departments facing possible staff cuts or other cost saving measures by Marietta City Council in response to a performance audit that projects the city's general fund could be empty as early as 2025 have proposed alternative measures and have expressed their opinions about the proposed cuts.

According to the performance audit, Marietta's financial situation is a function of spending and is not a revenue problem. The audit suggests the city cut staff in the Public Works Department, the Police Department, the Fire Department and consolidate the Marietta/Belpre Health Department with the Washington County Health Department.

Council spoke with department heads at a joint employee relations and finance committees meeting on March 25, where they informed them of the possible staff cuts for the first time. Council also had other joint committee meetings on March 28 and April 1 to talk about switching city tax collection to the Regional Income Tax Authority and a joint committee meeting on April 8 to speak with department heads again about the cuts.

During these meetings the heads of the various departments have expressed their disagreement with the possible staff cuts and have offered alternatives.

At-Large Councilwoman Cassidi Shoaf said at the March 25 meeting that the city's goal is to save $1.2 million this year and that an even larger amount will need to be saved next year. As part of that goal, Shoaf said at the meeting they were proposing cutting the recreation program officer manager, the foreman I position upon that person's retirement, the foreman II position, one utility billing clerk and the city engineer position with the plan of contracting out for the duties filled by the city engineer.

During the meeting Marietta Public Works Superintendent Christopher Hess told the council that there are other ways to cut costs in public works besides staff cuts. He mentioned that his department has used less salt the last two winters so they should have a stockpile of salt. He also said they could spend tree funds more carefully, which would save the city about $60,000.

During the April 8 meeting Hess offered additional cost saving suggestions, his department trying to use the resources they have for projects instead of buying expensive materials. Hess said he is also reviewing the mowing contract to see if it can be eliminated by the department doing the mowing themselves, which would save almost $140,000.

The Marietta Health Department also had representatives speak with council during the meetings, and they also spoke with the Marietta Times on Tuesday about the proposed merger of the department with the Washington County Health Department and the effect this would have.

Marietta/Belpre Health Department Administrator Barbara Bradley said that the merger is "still in the infancy stages" at this time.

"We started talking, us and the county, in January about a possible merge and we were investigating ... we were doing it slow and methodical," Bradley said. "And then the performance audit came out and everything blew up."

Bradley said her board made a resolution allowing her to continue talks with the county about a merger but that there is no resolution from either health department's board approving a merger yet.

The resolution said that "once we had a plan in place to bring it to both boards, both boards would vote on it and then take it to city councils, and somewhere in there the attorneys would get involved," Bradley said.

Marietta/Belpre Health Department Public Health Nurse Becky Jones said both departments receive grants and depending on when the merger occurs it could lead to loss of some of the Marietta/Belpre Health Department grants. Bradley said that she has confirmed with the state that they will at least not lose their $370,000 grant that pays for some of the services they offer.

According to Jones, in order for a merger to be completed, there has to be an agreement on how much Marietta and Belpre would contribute to the new organization created in the merger. Bradley thinks if both cities continue to pay what they contribute now, a merger could happen.

Jones is worried about losing all the clinics that the department offers for infectious diseases, men's and women's health issues and sexually transmitted infections if the merger is completed. She said the county health department does not offer these clinics.

Bradley is concerned with immunizations if a merger takes place, because the city health department offers immunizations every day while the county offers them only on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Bradley said that if the merger is done right and the money is appropriated from Marietta and Belpre that she thinks the county would take all eight employees from the Marietta/Belpre Health Department.

"If they don't take their time and the money's not there, there will be probably six people losing their jobs," she said.

Bradley is also concerned with the way the performance audit was handled.

"I don't understand how they can do a performance audit and say what they're saying about the health department when no one came to talk to us, no one came and looked at our information," Bradley said.

The City Tax Department had representatives at a joint employee relations and finance committees meetings on March 28 and April 1 as council considered switching the city income tax collection to the Regional Income Tax Agency, which serves 400 municipalities by providing municipal tax collection and enforcement services.

Marietta Deputy Tax Administrator Bonnie Duff said that RITA is offering to provide its services for $40,000 less than it costs the city tax department to perform its duties last year.

On March 29, At-Large Councilman Harley Noland confirmed that if council does choose RITA to collect city income taxes, then it would replace most of the city tax department staff.

RITA representative Al Dolezal told the council during the April 1 meeting that RITA will reduce the city's costs, increase service levels due to things like electronic filing and it will increase the city's tax revenue collections.

Duff made suggestions on how the tax department can save money in an opinion she provided counsel during the March 28 meeting, which included changing the credit residents are given for taxes they paid to other municipalities, stopping sending out business related tax forms and stopping including return envelopes with their mailings.

Marietta Fire Chief C.W. Durham has spoken to council about the proposed cuts they mentioned at the March 25 meeting, which were one firefighter being eliminated now and another being eliminated after the person retires next year. Durham spoke with the Times Wednesday about the proposed cuts and ways for the city to save money.

Durham said "if they do the two cuts ... that means we'll have to close out one of the ambulances."

He said that means every third day the ambulance station in downtown Marietta at Third and Putnam streets would be closed and that would mean a longer response time for ambulances on those days because they would be coming from the ambulance stations on Harmar Hill and Colegate Avenue.

Durham said in an emergency "seconds and minutes matter."

He submitted a proposal through city administration to help save the same amount the city expects to save with cutting the two positions. He suggested that when Station One firefighters, who are funded by the general fund, fill in for firefighters at the fire levy-funded stations to cover days off that they could be partially funded by the fire levy instead of the general fund.

He said he also proposed a "fire coverage fee similar to the EMS third party billing" the department uses now. That would mean their billing company would bill a person's insurance company for the fire department helping at car wrecks, structure fires, car fires and more.

Durham said he is concerned with what the cuts would do to the fire department's Insurance Services Office rating, that it might lower it.

According to ISO's website, the rating helps establish appropriate fire insurance premiums for residential and commercial properties, with ratings going from 1, which is superior fire protection, to 10 which means a program doesn't meet their minimum standards.

Durham told the Times previously in 2023 that a higher ISO score can increase home insurance rates in the community.

"We operate on very minimal staffing," he said.

This means that some days all three ambulances are out on emergency calls and that leaves only two people available to respond on a fire truck. He said a reduction in staffing means there would be even less people to respond to an emergency scene to put out a fire.

Durham said this would "really compromise our ability to put out fires and save victims."

Council is proposing cuts to the Marietta Police Department of one police captain, one police sergeant and either three patrol officers and one school resource officer (SRO) or four patrol officers and a parking violation administration position. Police Chief Katherine Warden spoke to the Times Wednesday about the possible cuts.

Warden said the proposed cuts are seven police department employees which is almost a quarter of the staff. She said the police force has a total of three clerks, four dispatchers and 19 regular patrol officers which includes detectives and the SRO.

She said that she has been working with the superintendent of Marietta City Schools on getting a second SRO but because of the proposed cuts that is not going to happen.

Warden said because some positions that are proposed in the cuts are not union positions, those employees would not be able to be moved down to another position and would lose their jobs and it would cause some positions to be shifted to going out on the streets.

She said all of this "is going to trigger grievances and possibly legal action and then the city's going to have to pay out to defend these decisions. So what kind of cost savings are they going to have when they have to defend with legal fees and have to defend these cuts."

She said she gave the administration a proposal after the first department head meeting that estimates how much can be saved with alternative cuts, including Marietta City Schools funding the SRO, and the city could take back American Rescue Plan Act funding for several projects including the police department remodel, the Marietta Fire Department Training Center, proposed pickleball/tennis courts and money for the Start Westward Monument.

She also suggested getting rid of three seasonal workers, turning off the street lights, charging for parade control, charging cruiser fees, billing for private property crashes and not having officers work overtime for the Sternwheel Festival.

She said the cuts will lead to cutting nonessential services like complaints of loud music and barking dogs and that they would be able to do less traffic and speeding enforcement work and less mutual aid requests for things like canines.

Warden emphasized that if cuts happen the department will still prioritize emergency calls.

Council will hold a public session for the performance audit today at 6 p.m at Graham Auditorium at Washington State College of Ohio to answer written questions that have already been submitted by the public. Questions had to be submitted by Wednesday.

Starting at /week.