By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



On Monday night, the Warrior city council chamber was filled to standing-room-only with city employees and residents.

The crowd was most likely there for one reason – to find out if the city was going to lay off employees.

It did not. But Mayor Rena Hudson said it likely is only a matter of time.

Hudson proposed lay-offs that would save the city $145,149. But even that would not not make up for the anticipated $358,000 decline in sales tax revenue for this year.

Sixty-nine percent of the city’s income is from sales tax.

Hudson’s proposed lay-offs, with savings to the city, include:

• building inspector: $9,747.20

• public works employee: $23,996

• two police officers: $80,000

• part-time librarian: $10,000

• custodian, reduce to 32-hour week: $4,696

• fire department, reduce hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: $14,560

• city clerk’s office contract labor: $2,150

“It is with a sad heart that we must face the above action,” wrote Hudson in the letter. “At this time we have no other recourse.”

However, the layoffs did not come up for a vote during the meeting.

According to Hudson, the council had devised a plan to trim spending by $195,000. Details for that figure were unavailable by press time, but more than $134,000 of the savings was from a slashed police department budget written by Police Chief Ray Horn.

“We’ve just cut back to the bare bones,” said Horn. “We won’t be ordering any uniforms and we’ve cut down to just two or three Nextels.”

According to Hudson, if the council approves the layoffs the city will still have a $50,000 deficit for this year.

The pre-council meeting escalated into a shouting match among the mayor and council members as they argued about alternatives to laying off employees.

During three special meetings in January and February regarding Warrior’s finances, city council members have made several suggestions to save money and save city employees’ jobs. Their ideas have included freezing raises, cutting employees’ hours back, doing no street paving or repairs, halting demolition of abandoned houses and other measures.

The latest idea, from council member Theodore Hines, was shot down Monday in a failed vote.

Hines proposed that the city ask all employees if they would agree to take a 5-percent pay cut in order to save city workers’ jobs.

Hines voted yes along with councilmen Brad Fuller and Johnny Ragland. Jerry Bailey abstained because his daughter is a city employee. James Jett and Mayor Hudson voted no.

At least four “yes” votes were necessary for a majority, so the vote failed.

“I didn’t want to put our employees in that position,” said Jett. “It’s our job as mayor and council” to take care of the problem, he said.

Hudson said she voted no because she did not know whether it was legal to ask employees to accept a pay cut.

The crowd at Monday’s meeting seemed most concerned about firefighters and police officers being laid off. Several people spoke up in opposition to public safety personnel losing their jobs.

One woman said she would move if she and her children no longer felt safe in Warrior because of fewer police officers on the streets.

Business owners Carl Scroggins of Warrior Speed Mart and Tom Maharrey of Cars for Less in Warrior also spoke up in defense of the police and fire departments.

Maharrey, who lives in Trussville, offered to pay a month’s salary for any police officer, which earned a round of applause from the crowd. Hudson said the city would accept his offer.

Warrior’s financial situation crashed toward the end of 2008.

In a letter from Hudson to city council members dated Feb. 16, Hudson wrote that the city had to borrow $100,000 in August 2008. Also last year the city cashed in a Certificate of Deposit in the amount of $63,022.65 and transferred $70,000 from the capital improvement account, $30,542.37 from the gasoline tax account, and $12,000 from the police department fund.

Totaled, the City of Warrior operated with a $275,565.02 deficit last fiscal year.

In other business, the council:

• accepted the resignation of Warrior court clerk Renee Sears, who said she hoped her resignation would help the city

• agreed to allow Al-Anon family group meetings to be held at the community center

• approved a leave of absence for police officer Clarence Hill, who is attending U.S. Air Force training

• tabled voting on whether to hire a Web site designer for the city