The City of Lorain, Ohio

Department of Public Service and Safety

200 West Erie Avenue, 7th Floor City Hall
Lorain, OH 44052 (440) 204-2011 Fax (440) 204-2542

Tony Krasienko Service Director Safety Director Chief Deputy S/S Director Deputy S/S Director
Mayor Robert J. Gilchrist Philip Dore Kenneth Shawver Joseph Arendt

September 13, 2010

Jonathon George
6050 Doe Crossing
Lorain, Oh 44053

Re: Statement of Rationale – Layoffs

Dear President George:

The City of Lorain, Ohio, a municipal corporation has been experiencing funding and
budget difficulties for several years. In 2010, the City of Lorain was able to balance the
annual budget passed by Council as the result of a $5 million health bond that financed health
expense for a full year, allowing the City to utilize anticipated revenue to pay for expenses
without health cost, coupled with a reduction in the Income Tax Credit extended to residents
that pay local income tax to other communities.

By the end of the first half of 2010, it was found that anticipated revenue was severely
behind schedule as a result of citizens not submitting estimated income tax as expected, which
resulted in Auditor Ron Mantini reducing anticipated revenue by $950,000. In order to offset
the loss of this revenue without further employee layoffs, the administration has determined
that it is necessary to utilize a grant opportunity from NOPEC, coupled with the savings of
deferring city employee payroll for two weeks.

Subsequently, The IAFF Local 267 filed a grievance, protesting that the payroll
deferral was a violation of the current CBA, and demanded the payroll deferral be reversed
retroactively. A process to expedite the decision of this grievance at arbitration is scheduled to
conclude on September 29, 2010. Auditor Mantini’s office has determined that should the
IAFF prevail with their grievance, the City will suffer additional payroll expenses of $185,000
that will not be adequately funded as a result of the diminished revenue described above.
Therefore, in preparation for a possible award in favor of the IAFF in this grievance, it is
necessary to schedule a layoff as soon as possible to minimize the amount of employee’s that
must be cut to meet the additional payroll required by such an award. Additionally, the City
has determined that any further layoff in the Fire Department will result in additional fire
station closings, which will result in the need to reduce the number of Fire Lieutenants, which
will in turn reduce the number of firefighters needed to be laid off from thirteen (13) to eleven
(11). It should be is noted that if the IAFF does not prevail with the grievance regarding
deferred pay, the immediate need to reduce Fire Department employees will be negated,
and any scheduled layoffs can be rescinded in a timely manner.

Therefore, on October 2, 2010 at 0730 hours, it is necessary to layoff six (6) Fire
Lieutenants and five (5) Firefighters from the Lorain Fire Department. In accordance
with the current collective bargaining agreement and Ohio Revised Code Section 124.37,
the laid off Lieutenants “shall be demoted to the next lower rank and the youngest officer
in point of service in the next lower rank shall be demoted, and so on down until the
youngest person in point of service has been reached, who shall be laid off”. The end
result of this process will be the demotion of the six Fire Lieutenants with the least
seniority in rank to the position of firefighter, and the layoff of eleven Firefighters with
the least seniority in the Fire Department.

The six Fire Lieutenants who are to be demoted by seniority are: Lt. Steven
Heider, Lt. Shawn Lloyd, Lt. Dan Russell, Lt. Todd Kieswetter, Lt. Greg Neal, and LT.
Matt Homolya.

The six Firefighters who shall be laid off as a result of being bumped and the
additional five firefighters who shall be laid off are: Christopher Radman, Christopher
Cotterill, Michael Furci, Wilfred Velez, Daniel McBennett, Matthew Markutsa, Robert
Hendershot, Frank Griffith, Christopher Bennett, David Szabo, and Joseph Houdeshell.

Layoff notices are required to be sent by regular mail at least 17 days prior to a
layoff. These layoffs notices are being mailed today, and a copy is provided for your
record.

It is the Administration’s intent to closely monitor our fiscal condition as time

progresses, and recall laid off employees as soon as possible, within the time limits
prescribed for employees recall rights as established by the Collective Bargaining
Agreement.

Sincerely,

Philip K. Dore
Director of Public Safety

PKD/s/
xc: Auditor
Civil Service Commission
Fire Chief
IAFF Local 267
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