Albany City Manager Tom Berry: Incentives needed for staff reductions

ALBANY — Interim City Manager Tom Berry offered some sobering words to Albany city commissioners Tuesday as some balked at a proposal to provide an ad hoc basis for employee incentives.

Berry said the proposal, which would pave the way for planned employee buyouts that will be used to reduce the city’s work force, is one way city officials can begin the process of addressing an estimated $6 million annual shortfall that will start in 2018 when credits from the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia stop coming in. Those credits, which are part of MEAG’s “payback” of funding collected from member utilities as a hedge against deregulation that never came, have brought almost $100 million to city coffers over the last decade.

“I’m not saying (the ad hoc incentives) are the only answer, but if you don’t do something about this soon, there’s going to be hell to pay in the city of Albany,” Berry warned the commission. “Because starting in 2018, you’re going to have to make up for $6 million, and if there’s not a plan in place, you’re going to have to make arbitrary cuts everywhere … in the police department, the fire department, among all city personnel.

“And you will not do any (voluntary) reductions without incentives.”

Ward II Commissioner Bobby Coleman disagreed with the proposal because it would “give authority over people’s jobs” to non-elected officials. But both Berry and Mayor Dorothy Hubbard warned commissioners that they would be approaching dangerous territory if they got deeply involved in employee management.

“If you’re talking about pulling individual personnel issues into this body, I don’t think you want to do that,” Berry said.

Coleman said the commission was “rushing” the proposal and pointed out that “half the commission and the mayor could be new (after next year’s municipal elections).” Hubbard responded, “That’s always the case, but we were not put here (by voters) to make decisions based on whether or not we might be here at some point.”

Hubbard also later told the board, “I’m not sure how much we want or need to be involved in personnel matters. One of the things (former city manager) Mr. (James) Taylor always told me is that we don’t want to go there.”

Ward III Commissioner B.J. Fletcher took the matter a step further.

“If we’re going to sit in on (personnel) decisions like this, then it stands to reason that we would have to be willing to sit in on any lawsuits (that result from employee action),” Fletcher said. “We keep mentioning having a permanent city manager, but I would think anyone coming here would be discouraged if things like (an incentive process) are not in place.”

Ward V Commissioner Bob Langstaff, noting that the city manager is hired to make personnel decisions, said, “We set the policy in the city, but we’re not supposed to micromanage.”

Ward VI’s Tommie Postell added, “If we don’t come up with a process, (employee management) will be helter skelter. This is going to have a direct impact on our money. We’re facing a financial crunch, and we need to downsize. We’ve got to look at this as if we’ve got a person who’s not working, that person doesn’t need to be employed. It’s common sense.”

Fletcher added, “We also need to look at the next generation of leaders coming along. If people (holding onto jobs just to collect salaries) stand in their way, we’re going to lose those young leaders. This is a business, and we need to treat it that way.”

The board voted 7-0 to approve the proposed incentive plan.

Also at the meeting, the commission voted tentatively to appoint Frederick Williams to the Board of Registration and Elections. If approved, Williams would replace Freddye Phipps as the City Commission’s appointed representative on the Elections Board. Phipps indicated in a Sept. 17 letter to City Clerk Sonja Tolbert that she did not want to be reappointed to the board.

Current Elections Board Chairman Commodore Conyers also decided to step down from his position on the board, and the Dougherty County Commission is expected to appoint Bobby McKinney to fill Conyers’ post at its meeting Monday.