Sudbury city payroll goes under microscope — and maybe the knife

Sudbury city budget talks get back underway Wednesday night, with some big decisions expected by the end of the week.

Much of the focus will be on the numbers at the bottom of the city payroll.

At the meeting on Wednesday, Sudbury city council will debate a new report showing employee costs by department.

Some spent hundreds of thousands of dollars more than expected, like the fire department where salaries and benefits were $643,350 over budget.

Other departments were way under, including water and sewer, where the payroll for 2014 was $1.2 million lighter than forecasted.

And while some city services accumulated no overtime hours last year, others saw workers put in thousands of hours over their regular shifts. Topping the overtime list is transit at 7,670 hours, followed closely by Pioneer Manor at 7,394.

Those numbers could be top of mind Thursday night, when Sudbury city council takes a closer look at a plan to save $2.3 million over the next year by not replacing employees who leave or retire.

Darryl Taylor is the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4705, which represents about 1,500 of the 2,000 city workers.

"I could see where it could be possible, the problem is if they do do that it's just going to be the frontline and the public services that people depend on that are going to suffer," he said.

Taylor advised city council to take a closer look at the pay cheques of city managers instead.

"I challenge the city to sit down with the union and let us show you where those savings are. You could save millions of taxpayer dollars and not touch the frontline services."

Rob Hyndman, the president of the Sudbury Professional Firefighters Association, said his members have been wondering what cuts would mean for them.

"They're paying attention," he said. "We're pretty much as skeleton as we can get. I don't know where they'd be cutting more staff. It would obviously be quite concerning for us from a health and safety perspective."

About half of the city's half billion dollar budget is spent on its employees.

That budget is expected to be finalized by the end of the month.