More than 150 angry Calumet City residents packed a City Council meeting Thursday night to protest threatened layoffs of 60 city employees and to speak against a proposed stiffer new curfew for youths.
Votes on both measures were put off Thursday, but Mayor Robert Stefaniak promised he would carry out the layoffs if a 5 percent utility tax is not approved by July 11 to plug a projected $2 million shortfall in next year`s budget.
The mayor also dismissed cost-cutting measures passed by the council Thursday night as insufficient to deal with the budget shortfall. The measures included an immediate hiring freeze and leaving vacant jobs vacant.
Stefaniak said he was confident his tax plan would be considered and passed at the July 11 meeting.
Residents also expected a vote on the curfew Thursday night, but the council postponed that vote for two weeks saying the issue needed more study. Because of the crowding at the meeting, residents in some cases stood behind aldermen`s chairs. Many in the crowd said they were concerned because Stefaniak has said he will lay off 20 percent of the city`s firefighters, police, and other workers unless the utility tax is passed.
”I can`t dictate to you how to solve your financial problems,” Pat Ramachowski, a six-year Police Department dispatcher told the mayor and council members. ”But cutting safety personnel is very dangerous.”
”If you decide to cut any of the personnel of this city, then cut 20 percent of the council and 20 percent of the mayor,” her husband told the council. The crowd cheered his remark.
The utility tax, which is common in other Chicago suburbs like neighborhing South Holland, would cost residents with average monthly utility bills of about $100 an extra $50 to $60 a year.
City officials have attributed the looming budget deficit to cuts in federal and state funding, noting that the city stands to lose $1.2 million a year if the state income tax surcharge is not extended.
Stefaniak had said that cutting the city`s $800,000-a-month payroll is the only way to cut the deficit without a tax hike.
The curfew proposal would require youths 17 and under to be off the street by 9 on week nights and 11 p.m. on weekends.
The curfew would exempt teens on their way home from jobs or school or church meetings.
