Gary city officials will conduct a public hearing Wednesday meant to give the public a chance to express their thoughts about the city's desires to merge their employees who now work for numerous departments into a single entity of workers who would serve various agencies.
One such merger involves someday combining the city's police and fire departments into a single public safety department. But Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson has also suggested that city workers in public works, parks, sanitation, public buildings and vehicle maintenance be combined – with workers being capable of doing various duties.
The hearing is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 401 Broadway, in the council chambers.
Municipal officials say their intent is to use city employees in a more efficient manner – allowing the city to get by without having to hire new people. They also say workers could benefit because they would qualify for higher salaries if they're capable of doing many different tasks.
"It is proposed the benefits of the consolidation would eliminate operational redundancies and part-time staff, make available a larger pool of resources that could result in faster and more efficient services," the city said, in a prepared statement.
It would, "eliminate parochial or territorial barriers between cities' entities, provide much needed transportation resources to coordinate capital planning (and) will allow for centralized management and tracking system of all service functions," their statement read.
The mayor has said one way this could be achieved is to shift those employees to the payroll of the Gary Sanitary District, although in putting together a city government budget for the 2016 calendar year, the Common Council said it is presuming that the status quo will remain in place through April 30.
Any change in employees and the city payroll would not occur until after that date.
Any changes ultimately would have to be negotiated with the labor unions that represent various city workers. Officials with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local 4001 have said they are skeptical; fearing a shift is merely an attempt to break up the union.
Gary Sanitary District employees are not represented by a union, whereas other city workers are.
Both the Common Council and the Sanitary District's board would have to approve any changes, although it is not yet known when those entities would take a vote on such an issue.