Ward 10
Kelli Crawford
1460 Seminola Ave.
Akron, OH 44305
Home: 330-798-0275
Office: 330- 375-2256
Voice mail: 330-375-2800 #8310
Ward10@ci.akron.oh.us

Chief,

 What we need to know is the City financial plan to solve the problem. Lets say the city is 12 million in debt and all the unions give back enough to make up 5 million. How is the city going to recover the last 7 million. The unions also need to see the city administration giving back. The unions think we should do a marathon work week with all employees giving back. As an example each person needs to give back 5% across the board to make up the 7 million. The way I see it right now the fire administration has stayed within their budget so where did the city go wrong, what areas can all of the city cut that are not needed, and what debt are we left with that cannot be cut. Now we know what we have to make up so we can talk about how all of us will do that. By the mayor just demanding everything back is not going to be acceptable. In the Cinci issue the Fire Department was asked to sit with their union and to come up with a way to cut 2 million from the Fire Department budget. They sat down and came up with a solution that worked with their group. If that was asked of us I feel we could sit down and do that. The problem in the City of Akron is not within the Fire department budget. No one seems to know for sure what the true numbers are and even if we give back everything there is no agreement to not layoff as it stands today. Asking for everything back that persons like yourself have gotten over the past years with out explanation or actually listening to people and working with people will probably not result in a positive outcome. As I told Deputy Mayor Masturzo we are more than happy to sit down and discuss all of the issues and try to come up with solutions but it seems the mayor has dumped on Jim to just get money back. We also need to look into the next few years not just through the end of this year because I do not feel balancing the budget this year is the only problems and as of January everything is going to be swell. So I offer to you the same, we will sit down and work on any suggestions the Fire Administration has if you have the answer to what is being requested to solve. How much money is requested from the fire department? Is the mayor asking us to open the contract for just through the end of the year, a one year extension, or open negotiations early for a whole three year contract? I guess the problem everyone is having is what the mayor seems to be asking will not solve the long term problems so they feel we may as well get what we can get before the bottom falls out. Call me if you want to meet and discuss this matter.

Thanks,

Phil