Recommendations from an informal task force organized by Huntington Common Council member Steve McIntyre - including an assertion that the Huntington Police Department has 10 too many officers - were presented to the council on Tuesday, March 9, setting off an exchange that prompted a union official to characterize city government as "dysfunctional."

The cost-cutting recommendations were drawn up in response to a shortfall in city revenues that, Huntington Clerk-Treasurer Christi Scher said Tuesday, has the city's general fund $854,230 in the red so far this year. Scher says she's paying the bills by borrowing from funds that can't be spent; if city revenue doesn't increase enough to pay that money back by the end of the year, she added, the city will be forced to borrow money to repay those funds.

Twenty city employees - about half of them firefighters - have been laid off as the city deals with the financial crisis. One fire station has been closed, city trash pickups have been reduced to twice a month and the budgets for nearly every city department have been cut.

The council has hired a consulting firm, Umbaugh and Associates, to study city operations and recommend cost-saving measures. The task force organized by McIntyre operated independently of that study. McIntyre did not publicly identify the members of that task force.

McIntyre admitted that some of the task force recommendations were not feasible - although he did not specify which ones - but said he wanted to present them to Mayor Steve Updike unedited.

"I did not feel I should try to limit their thoughts," McIntyre said. "I included all of them, even the ones that are impossible."

McIntyre said it's up to the mayor and the rest of the city administration to decide which, if any, of those recommendations to adopt.

Councilman Jason Fields had previously submitted a list of possible cost-cutting measures, and told Updike he's still waiting for a response.

Updike and Scher insisted that the city administration has been doing its part - cutting nearly $1.5 million out of the 2010 budget so far - and Updike reiterated his position that the city needs to institute a service fee to bring in money to pay the bills.

McIntyre and Fields, though, both said they wanted to see more cuts before they'll consider instituting a fee.

"You need to make a move to do that if that's what you want done," Updike told council, referring to additional cuts. "Maybe we're at a standoff."

Council members, meanwhile, said they believe that making cuts is Updike's responsibility.

Both council members and Updike received a scolding from Brian Lytle, an official with Teamsters Local 414, which represents all city employees except police officers and firefighters.

"You've become dysfunctional," Lytle said. "You have vital services here that are in jeopardy."

Huntington Police Chief Tom Emely said that his department needs all the officers it has.

"If you take away 10 police officers," Emely asked the crowd at the meeting, "what do you want to give up?"
In addition to laying off 10 police officers, the task force's recommendations included:

• Reduce the number of paid firefighters and supplement them with volunteers.

• Combine the city's parks department and street department, eliminate some positions and cross train the remaining staff.

• Eliminate pay for park board members.

• Eliminate the city's police dog program.

• Consolidate city and county dispatch centers.

• Sell unused city-owned cars, primarily police cars.

• Eliminate a program that allows city employees to take home city-owned vehicles.

• Begin a hiring freeze.

• Reduce the work week of hourly employees by four hours.

• Halt the Umbaugh study.

• Make changes to longevity pay for city employees.

• Sell a former fire station on South Jefferson Street that is now used as an ambulance bay.

• Limit sick days for public safety employees.

• Reduce the number of paid holidays from 13 to six.

• Combine the positions of human resources director and operations manager for the city.

• Cut the number of deputy clerks in the clerk-treasurer's office.

• Charge city employees more for their insurance.

• Use garbage trucks that can be operated by one person (current trucks require a three-person crew).

• Recruit service clubs to sponsor park improvements, programs and maintenance.

• Form a purchasing cooperative with Huntington County.