Submitting an ordinance to Akron City Council, Plusquellic said, "I have assured our employees over and over that they will still be employed by the City when voters approve the lease of our sewer system. I am backing up that promise using the strongest voice possible, a city ordinance."

Issue 8 on the November ballot asks voters to approve scholarships for a university, college, technical or trade school education for Akron students funded from the leasing of the city’s sewer system.

"Even though we have reassured our employees that their jobs would be safe," said Service Director Rick Merolla, "the Mayor felt very strongly that there should be no doubt left."

The ordinance, going before Akron City Council Monday, September 29, 2008, authorizes the mayor and service director to place all of the affected employees---who are represented by the AFSCME and CSPA unions and also serve in non-bargaining positions--- into other departments of the city when the city leases the sewer system. The approximately 100 employees would earn their same hourly pay rate and retain all existing benefits and pension.

Plusquellic reinforced his intentions, saying, "There are those in our community who continually and intentionally mislead our citizens. On February 11, I told City Council that I believed that those 100 employees should remain employed by the City. I have re-emphasized this point time and time again since then, but---for whatever reason---these people persist. Now, with this ordinance, there should be no more uncertainty; no more misleading."

With the lease of the sewer system, the City would receive $200 million or more to establish the scholarship fund.

The Mayor has described Issue 8 as a trade off. "This is similar to a family building equity in a home, and then taking out a second mortgage to pay for their daughter’s wedding," he said. "They have something very important to do in life at that exact time, and that’s a smart way to get it done."

"In this case," Plusquellic continued, "we receive funds for something that has tremendous intrinsic value, but without the financial burden of paying off additional debt. Now, we reap the benefit from the lease by providing higher education for our children, which must be a priority at this point given our increasingly competitive world. At the same time, we will protect the users of the sewer system with a cap on rate increases."

"Our children can compete with anybody in the world, if they are given the education needed to fill the high-tech jobs. This makes the Akron Scholarship Plan even more critical and relevant today," the Mayor said.

Over the years, the City of Akron has---as have most people and businesses---done more with less, as the public service department experienced a decline in employees due to normal attrition.  It has worked hard to provide service to residents with fewer employees. The lease of the sewer system would create a pool of roughly 100 skilled workers who would be available to fill the positions that are available due to attrition.

Merolla added, "These hard-working, trained employees have skills that are valuable to us in other areas."

See proposed ordinance (8k pdf)
For more info go to www.akronscholarshipplan.com