In a 3-2 decision, the Wellington Village Council gave preliminary approval to its 2015 budget Tuesday, dropping a planned return to a five-day week for municipal complex staff.
Without any public comment, the council debated the merits of the current four-day week as opposed to a five-day week, which requires about $93,000 more in the budget.
The four-day workweek was instituted several years ago as part of extensive budget cuts in the face of the economic downturn and dwindling village revenue. The draft budget planned to return some workers to a five-day schedule as of Oct. 1.
Vice Mayor John Greene said a four-day vs. a five-day workweek has been one of the more controversial discussion topics among council members.
“I think our staff does an incredible job Monday through Thursday,” Greene said. “The hours put in, I think are reflected in the level of service our residents get.”
He said he has not received any negative feedback from residents about the four-day workweek, which has employees working longer hours each day to keep a 40-hour schedule.
“I’m willing to support this budget the way it’s presented, but I also encourage this council to understand that there is not a crisis in this community for inability to serve and meet the level of expectations and standards that we’ve all come to expect as what makes Wellington a great place to live,” he said.
Greene added that he thought staff members had adapted their schedules to a four-day workweek and would have difficulty adjusting back to a five-day week. “I don’t see it as broken,” he said.
Greene added that he comes to the municipal complex on Fridays to take advantage of the quiet atmosphere and catch up, and sees senior staff members also at work.
He also pointed out that services such as building inspections can still be scheduled on Fridays, and that with the 10-hour workday, residents have the ability to conduct village business before or after work.
“I wouldn’t be advocating this as strongly if I felt there was significant feedback from the community saying, ‘Why aren’t you guys open on Friday?’” he said. “I don’t think that level of service is being compromised.”
However, Councilman Matt Willhite said the four-day week was adopted at the height of the economic crisis.
“I was here when we went from five to four, and it’s my understanding that there was always the expectation that we would go back,” Willhite said, pointing out that Wellington is the last municipality that has not returned to a five-day week. “We did something that was expected to be a cost savings for the time period that we were drastically hurting.”
Willhite added that he was concerned residents would think that government was taking advantage of them by having only a four-day workweek, and that residents had adjusted to the four-day week as something they had to do under the circumstances.
Councilman Howard Coates also favored a return to a five-day workweek.
“I agree wholeheartedly with what Councilman Willhite has said,” Coates said. “It was supposed to be temporary. It was supposed to be an extraordinary act to reduce costs at a time that not only this community, but the whole nation was in a crisis with respect to the economic condition. I can’t imagine that we’re asking too much that we provide government services on the same calendar that the great majority of America works, and that is Monday through Friday.”
Coates added that he thought the four-day workweek might breed resentment in the community that village workers work four days, although he said he personally felt staff worked as hard and professionally as they ever had.
“I don’t believe that taxpayers pay for a government that provides services for a four-day workweek,” he said. “Whether they complain about it or not, I think their expectation is that government is going to be functioning at least Monday through Friday.”
Councilwoman Anne Gerwig said that returning to a five-day schedule would be losing the early and late hours that she believed many residents on a five-day workweek have come to take advantage of.
“I think the convenience factor is huge for the residents who can come in here early,” Gerwig said. “It may not be the massive amounts of residents, but those people it does serve early and late Monday through Thursday are probably people who have difficulty getting here during their work hours.”
Gerwig said she did not mind that Wellington may be the only municipality in the county keeping the four-day workweek, stressing that employees are still working a 40-hour week.
“We’re not selling you short on our work,” she said. “We’re doing it in four days instead of five. I’m willing to continue with the four-day workweek.”
Mayor Bob Margolis noted that he has not received any requests to return to the five-day workweek but had received e-mails and comments during the village’s budget challenge in favor of keeping the four-day week because people can conduct village business before or after their working hours.
Greene made a motion to adopt the first reading of the budget with removal of the five-day workweek and using the $96,000 savings to reduce the tax rate from $2.46 per $1,000 assessed valuation to $2.45, and it carried 3-2 with Willhite and Coates opposed. Final adoption of the budget is set for Sept. 23.
ABOVE: The Wellington Municipal Complex.
