City looks at worst case
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:04 p.m., January 31, 2008
Updated 01:04 p.m., January 31, 2008
City managers are trained to prepare for worst-case scenarios, and that’s what Matt Zimmerman is doing now that Emporia will be losing about 1,500 jobs.
At Wednesday morning’s city study session, Zimmerman outlined to the city commission his early look at what kind of impact the layoffs at the Emporia Tyson plant could have on the city, as well as an early overview of how the community response team will work to deal with the situation.
Zimmerman outlined a list of adverse effects that Emporia could see from the Tyson layoffs. He emphasized that the potential situation he was examining was just something to plan for, not something to expect. Before he began his list, he braced the commission, telling them, “Now, you have to remember, as government bureaucrats, we’re trained to look at worst-case scenarios. So hear me out on this.”
First, Zimmerman said that if economic successes aren’t realized in the short term, the city could see an initial spike in crime.
“(It) will probably stay at a higher level for a while, and same with domestic disputes,” Zimmerman said. “We would be anticipating that. The good news in the community is, we anticipated a spike over the weekend, and we put a couple of officers on; didn’t happen.”
Zimmerman said Emporia would also probably see an increase in ambulance costs, and more write-offs in ambulance costs because of decreasing ability to pay the charges. As the economic crisis continues to lengthen, he said, there would probably be an increase in arson cases.
Other possible effects include fewer building permits, fewer tickets being issued and increased jail costs.
Economically, the biggest effect will come in the city’s water budget. The Tyson plant is responsible for a staggering 20 percent of Emporia’s water collections, paying the city $876,000 in water fees last year. The effects on solid waste and sewer numbers will be much smaller; Tyson makes up 4 percent of the city’s solid waste collections and just .2 percent of sewer revenues.
Budget-wise, Zimmerman talked about several different potential actions that could be taken to help absorb the financial hit, including restructuring its debt. He said the city might talk to the state about possible forgiveness or deferral on its water and sewer revolving loan funds. The special park fund doesn’t provide a lot of cash, Zimmerman said, but the city could start charging the special park fund for when employees are working on specific park projects. He said the city is looking at possibly not opening the city pool this year or decreasing the hours that it is open.
“Last year, we had had some discussions about closing it for the season when school starts again,” he said. “Saves us about three weeks worth of cost with much less revenues, as a general rule.”
Zimmerman is hoping to have a more significant report, and will talk more about capital improvements, at next week’s city commission meeting.
Commissioner Jeff Longbine wanted to make sure to echo Zimmerman’s message that the list of adverse effects was just something to plan for.
“We do have to look at worst-case scenario, but once again, let’s not panic,” Longbine said. “Let’s see what comes out. It’s very unlikely that we’re going to do all of those things, that we’re going to need to do very many of those things. The world’s not over.”
On the community response team, Zimmerman said the city would mainly play a coordinating role, with each participating agency “doing their own thing” to evaluate what needs to be done.
A group of 21 organizations will be part of the community response team, including the county, the Chamber of Commerce, state Reps. Don Hill and Peggy Mast, the offices of U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep. Jerry Moran, Emporia Main Street and Newman Regional Health. Response team personnel will meet in their first closed session on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Zimmerman said the city was in much better shape to handle this crisis than it could be because 2007 was such a good year for revenues.
“If this had happened a year, ago,” Zimmerman said, “financially, we’d be hurting as a city.”
Absolute (anonymous) says...
I want to know what the school district is expecting.
January 31, 2008 at 2:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dayjob55 (anonymous) says...
I'm glad that the city is looking at the worst case scenerio but what I'm wondering about is all those that have lost their jobs over the last 2-3 years. No one held a job fair for them, worked with them to keep them in town, etc. If you add up the jobs lost over the last 3-4 years from the small businesses that have close you would have lost much more than 1500 jobs. But because it is 1 large number everyone thinks the world is coming to an end. I lost my job last year and no one offered me anything. Was it because I was white, female, over 50 and have paid taxes in this town and county for all these years and obeyed the laws? It seems that if you are doing the right things no one cares about you but if you are a refugee or send a large portion of your check back to Mexico government is more than happy to jump in and help you. I lost my job, my home, my health insurance and all of that makes life pretty miserable when the price of everything goes up. My unemployment check is about 60% of what I was making before and then I need to take about 25% of that out for taxes. Is there something wrong with this picture here?
February 2, 2008 at 9:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )