CUYAHOGA FALLS: Falls City Council is mulling a proposal that would outsource cleaning services, eliminating four city jobs.The contract that council is considering gives the city three days of cleaning service a week for about $34,000 year.A full-time, in-house service is projected to cost taxpayers more than $200,000 in 2012. Mark Walters, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2662 president, has asked council to delay a vote to give his union members a chance to save the jobs. He said one of the employees will be eligible to retire — albeit at a reduced pension — because of her years of service.Another “has 18-plus years of service and is two years too young to have the insurance provided by her husband’s pension,” Walters said. “One is a single person who lives alone. She has no extensive training, skills or experience. The last is a young person with seven-plus years of experience who will lose 500 hours of accumulated sick leave because she doesn’t have the required 10 years’ service.”Walters said he is asking council for the delay because these workers are like friends and wants council to remember when it meets tonight to consider the human toll of such a move.“[Council has] to do what’s best for the city,” he said. “I hope we’ve made it harder.”Service Director Valerie Wax Carr said it is a difficult decision, but the city must make tough choices, as it stands to lose $1.7 million in 2012 through a drop in state funding and property tax revenue.“It is not my goal to make people lose their jobs,” she said. “But there aren’t any more rabbits to pull out of the hat.”Carr made a similar proposal last year, but it was withdrawn when AFSCME employees volunteered to accept concessions rather than lose four members.This year, 81 of the 120
AFSCME members voted 50-31 against taking concessions.Walters said the vote was understandable.“They’re reluctant to give more concessions,” he said. “This is the third year in a row they’ve been asked. They’re tired of giving, giving and giving and not getting anything back.”There’s also a fear among members that concessions this year to save four jobs could limit what could be given back next year to potentially preserve even more union positions, Walters said.Council will meet at 6 tonight at the Natatorium.