Published: March 12, 2009

The reality of a slimmer budget has begun to set in as City officials terminate some contracts, consider shuffling responsibilities between departments and mull over ending long-standing privileges in an effort to wring more pennies out of every dollar.

The administration on Sunday exercised its option not to extend a contract with Scotland Yard security for security officers at City homeless shelters. Under the contract security officers at City shelters were paid prevailing wage.
Terminating the contract left approximately 30 members of 32 BJ Service Employees International Union the option of accepting deep pay cuts or losing their jobs.

The move drew howls of protest from members who brought their grievances to Council meeting Thursday and protested in the courtyard and around the perimeter of City Hall. By terminating the contract, Mayor Michael Nutter was able to force wages down from about $13 to $9.

The total package under the contract also included benefits and vacation pay that brought the total hourly wage to more than $16 an hour.

“The Mayor has asked us to turn in our badges for soup bowls,” said Wayne MacManiman, the union’s mid-Atlantic representative. “This is one of the most dangerous jobs in the city – these people come in with knives and razors, fleas. It’s just wrong.”

Security officer Malhoun Sutton said he wasn’t sure what he would do.
“Cutting our pay in half when everything is getting more expensive is going to kill us,” said Sutton.

He has held the job for five years.

“We really need health care and now it’s been snatched right from under us,” Sutton said.

The majority of the officers are Black, MacManiman said.

“They were making a decent wage now you’re putting them back into poverty,” he said, estimating that the City saves approximately 40 percent of the total contract cost. “We’re trying to raise the standard so people can raise themselves up.”
MacManiman and several union members delivered a letter of protest to the Mayor’s office at 11 a.m. Thursday. Nutter was not in at the time and he could not be reached for comment.

If their letter fails to persuade Nutter to change his mind, MacManiman said members would make sure he remembered when election time comes.
“We’re going to make ourselves physically seen,” he said. I’m not going to let the Mayor forget.”

In an unrelated item of cost cutting, Councilman Jim Kenney on Thursday introduced legislation that would give the Philadelphia Parking Authority the power to police businesses and contractors making sure their licenses were valid.

“There are feet on the ground that are being paid by the public to be there,” Kenney said. “We can have them check on the validity of a contractors license, issue the appropriate fine, if necessary, get that person…legal, provide L&I with a database of unlicensed businesses without having to put anymore responsibility or burden on L&I.”

The Department of Licenses and Inspections does not have the resources it needs, Kenney said and budget cuts seem likely to reduce them further.

“They are totally over their heads sometimes as to the amount of the jobs they are responsible for doing and the number of people they have to do it,” Kenney said. This is “something I think they can be helpful to us in this difficult time of collecting revenues and spreading out the work.”

In yet another budget driven item, Council will begin debating a proposal that could end a traditional 25 percent discount on water fees for non-profits.

According to Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, the discount has traditionally been extended to churches, schools, hospitals and universities.

That may change if Council decides it needs the money.

Hearings on the matter will convene Tuesday.

Blackwell said it’s not a proposal she endorses.

“My people are really upset about it,” she said.