Retirements trim Valley Stream workforce

Five Valley Stream employees have taken advantage of a retirement incentive that is expected to save the village money in future years as high-salaried employees are coming off the payroll.

The incentive was approved last April when the 2013-14 budget was adopted. Employees had to retire by Jan. 31 — extended from Dec. 31 — to be eligible for a one-time payment. They also had to give 45 days notice, but could choose to pull back their retirement papers up to two days before their anticipated last day of employment.

The five retirees included the pool maintenance supervisor, director of Code Enforcement, fleet services supervisor, account clerk and a cleaner at Village Hall.

Village Treasurer Michael Fox said three employees left in December, and two at the end of January. Those employees will be paid 1 percent of their base salary for every year they have been a member of the New York State Retirement System, up to 25 years.

Four of those five employees will get the maximum pay, and two of them have completed 25 years or more of service with the village. The other two worked in other governmental jobs before coming to Valley Stream. The fifth employee will be paid for 12 years.

Fox said that the retirement incentive is not expected to save much money this year, because the village already has budgeted a full year’s salary for those five people. The lump-sum payments will come from the money those employees would have made from their retirement until the village’s fiscal year ends on May 31. “It pays for itself within the budget,” Fox said.

There was talk of extending the incentive to March 31, but Fox said he was against that because it would not have left enough room in the current budget to pay the incentive costs from salary savings, and could have meant dipping into reserves.

The real benefit to the village comes in the 2014-15 budget and beyond, Fox said. In addition to saving money from five salaries, Fox said Valley Stream also won’t have to pay benefits, social security taxes and retirement costs for those individuals. Three of them, he said, were in the top pension tier, meaning the village had to pay 21 percent of their salaries to the state retirement system each year.

Mayor Ed Fare said that the goal is to save about $800,000 a year in personnel costs.

Reducing the workforce

Mayor Ed Fare said that when discussing the budget last year, the plan was to trim the head count by about 10 people. “We were trying to reduce the overall workforce through attrition, retirements and even terminations,” he said, adding that the village achieved that goal through a combination of the three.

He said there were no layoffs and all terminations were job-performance related.

Fare said some of those newly vacant positions will be filled because the jobs are necessary, but those will be done through internal promotions. For example, he said, the fleet services supervisor, who manages the repair of all of the village’s vehicles, will be replaced by promoting the assistant supervisor. At a later date, Fare said one of the mechanics would take on some of the assistant’s duties.

Some positions will be eliminated all together, and Fare said those will be announced in March when the village begins its budget planning for 2014-15.

Fare said that if any new employees are brought on, they will come in at lower salary levels, and will be contributing to their health insurance premiums, as has been a requirement for anyone hired since the last contract took effect nearly four years ago.

By reassigning duties and responsibilities among existing employees, Fare said the village has been able to absorb the loss of nearly a dozen workers. He explained that Valley Stream is nearing a point where it won’t be able to eliminate anymore staff. “Could we cut more people? Yes,” he said. “But then we’re cutting services. I don’t want to cut services.”