Money is getting tight in Haverhill, where Mayor James J. Fiorentini said he expects the coming year to bring an almost $6 million deficit. Already the Police Department is short-staffed, there are vacant jobs in public works, and the city clerk's office is making do with more part-timers and volunteers.
So the city is taking what Fiorentini calls a "pause." A hiring freeze instituted late last month, the mayor says, will help Haverhill preserve unspent funds that can then be used to buffer the city going into the next fiscal year. Fiorentini also is requiring that any municipal expenses of $500 or more be reviewed and authorized by him.
"Like most other cities in the area, we are going to have a problem with next year's budget, certainly depending on what happens with state aid," Fiorentini said during a Wednesday phone interview, adding that declining revenues from stag nating new projects are compounding the problem. "I want to make certain that we go into next year as well prepared as possible."
Fiorentini said the city's financial projections show that Haverhill is facing an estimated $5.8 million shortfall in the 2009 fiscal year. That figure, he said, probably will drop to about $3 million as a result of city cost-saving measures and promised state funds to cover some of the debt that Haverhill took on in the process of making the old Hale Hospital, which used to be run by the city, attractive for sale. The hospital was sold in 2001 and now operates as Merrimack Valley Hospital.
Still, Fiorentini said, layoffs could be on the way, and he wants to "put a pause on everything until we have a handle on what our numbers are" so that if and when new hires are made, those people won't be in danger of being laid off to keep the budget balanced.
Looking ahead, Fiorentini said he wasn't sure what was in store for Haverhill.
"If things continue to look bad for cities . . . all of us mayors are going to have to cut back on services. There's just no other way around this."
City Clerk Margaret Toomey said her office already is feeling the squeeze. Her assistant left in September, and in lieu of hiring someone, volunteers and part-time workers have been filling in the gap as Toomey and her staff have dealt with multiple municipal elections and an earlier-than-usual presidential primary.
"We got through it," Toomey said. "It's not my first preference. I would like to have that position filled, but the city's finances are such that we just take it day by day and project by project."
Fiorentini said filling Haverhill's two empty police jobs and hiring at least two more officers remains a priority.
"I definitely intend to fill the two [posts] immediately, and I am going to exempt them from the freeze. You have to keep your people safe; that's top priority," Fiorentini said Wednesday in a phone interview.
Later, he added, "If you've got a real emergency in your department, of course we are going to lift the freeze for you and we're going to fill it [the job]."
Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com
