KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, City Council adopted a resolution to furlough city staff members Thursday.
The furloughs are part of a bigger plan to cut $50 million from the current fiscal year budget due to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic.
The finance committee passed the proposal Wednesday, which lays out furloughs for staff in most departments.
There are exemptions, which include the health department, Local 42 and Local 3808 members, members of Local 500 of American Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees, workers who make less than $20 an hour, employees whose positions are grant-funded or third-party funded, and Water Services and Aviation staff members, which is not included in the general fund.
Parks and Recreation Director Terry Rynard said she was happy to learn labor workers were exempted.
"Our staff has had a long, hard, hot Summer so I was glad that they weren't rewarded with time off," Rynard said. "I was really glad to see that."
Council members voted to adopt an amendment Thursday to protect workers' pensions from being affected by the furloughs.
Director of Communications Chris Hernandez said furloughs will likely happen a little at a time and over the course of the rest of the fiscal year to minimize the financial impact to workers.
"In broad outlines, it's probably going to mean you can only take one furlough day per week," Hernandez said. "We want to make sure we're balancing the ability to still provide the services that people need and spread out the pain to employees and their paycheck and make sure you don't have an entire unit of folks all doing the same tasks who all disappear for a week."
Along with furloughs the City is cutting most department budgets by 4.5 percent. Public safety departments such as police and fire will be cut by 2.25 percent. Those cuts will total $23.6 million.
The City plans to take at least $12 million from its reserve fund, expand the current hiring freeze to save $4.8 million, and cut about $2 million from Neighborhood and Housing Services. Those cuts are yet to be determined but will avoid a reduction in recycling collection.
City staff now have seven days to finalize the details of how the furlough will work. Staff will report back to the Council next week.
