Communities use 4-day workweek to cut costs

DEARBORN HEIGHTS (AP) -- Dearborn Heights has gone to a four-day workweek at its municipal offices in a cost-cutting move meant to help it deal with a projected $5 million budget shortfall. The city started shutting municipal offices on Fridays last month, joining several communities that went to a four-day schedule in recent years, including Hazel Park, Wixom and Bloomfield and Oakland townships, The Detroit News reported.. The Detroit suburbs of Ferndale and Clawson also use a four-day workweek. In exchange, communities are boosting online services and working to improve efficiency as they try to deal with the streamlined hours. William Matthewson, general counsel for the Michigan Municipal League, noted that everything can't be accomplished online. "There's an intangible benefit to having a city or a village hall. It's a focal point of a community as well as being a service center," he said. "Perhaps we are moving to a virtual city hall. But at the same time, the reduction of hours means that a lot of citizens don't have the same level of access to their community's expertise." Dearborn Heights Mayor Dan Paletko said the city is asking all 218 employees to take a 10 percent wage reduction to save the city $1.3 million. He said that about 115 workers agreed to Friday furloughs to meet that goal. The city faces a predicted $5 million budget shortfall. The city hopes to streamline operations to save an additional $1 million and will ask voters in November to approve an overall $3.5 million tax increase. "Do we like doing this? Absolutely not, but given the dire economic situation we really didn't have a choice," Paletko said. "The financing model for cities, townships and county government in Michigan is completely broken." Jeff Gootee, president of AFSCME Local 290, which represents about 50 employees affected by the furloughs, said the workers know the cut was necessary but are fearful of its impact. "There's one more day out of the week that nothing is getting done," he said. "It's a huge inconvenience to residents." Officials in Hazel Park and Ferndale, for example, said they're working on additional online services to help employees and residents cope with reduced hours. Ferndale has been operating with reduced hours since November, and officials said they've saved $140,000. "There's still going to be some of the population that wants to come in and see somebody and want a stamped receipt. We can't get rid of the counter or phone in general, but we definitely can alleviate the traffic," said April McGrath, Ferndale's city manager. Published: Mon, Oct 10, 2011