A tip of the cap to law enforcement and fire department employees, already working to serve and protect, for putting the public good first in another way.
    To avoid job cuts in their public safety agencies, the fire, police and sheriff’s labor groups have agreed to freeze wages in order to maintain current staff levels (details on page A1).

Indeed, not everyone has escaped the axe. The budget crisis clearly is toughest on the school district and county employees (and their families) who will be laid off. The county will cut three positions that are currently filled, and the school district has done so with five positions. Our best wishes go out to those folks.

Meanwhile officers, deputies and firefighters are “taking one for the team” with labor contract revisions. Their sacrifice mirrors what’s already been done at local businesses, many of which have had to let workers go. Or, to help survive the downturn, owners, managers, and employees have accepted pay freezes, fewer hours and unpaid days.

Down the line, government should do the same.

All that’s left to avoid serious job losses at the city is for the administration and the public works union to get past what amounts to a misunderstanding over who has authority to negotiate. This is not an insurmountable obstacle; they should learn from what the other labor groups have already demonstrated:

Tough times trump turf.

The spirit of austerity was summed up well by Detective Matt English of the Hood River County Law Enforcement Association (Sheriff’s office employees):

 “Times are tough for everyone right now, so it was not an easy decision to forgo our cost of living allowance.  When it came down to it though, the most important thing to us was maintaining personnel.  If giving up our (cost of living adjustment) was going to assist in that effort, our members were willing to make some sacrifices to help ensure people kept their jobs and we were able to continue providing the same level of services.”

An almost daily sight in recent weeks has been a man hefting 8-inch-thick binders up the sidewalk. The man with the binders was City Manager Bob Francis, heading home with the books, or to another budget meeting. This has been a tough spring for everyone involved in hammering out a workable budget. Francis deserves credit for his hard work, and for agreeing to freeze his own salary. Such a move sets an example for all local government managers to follow. Many managers had already given up their cost of living adjustments, but we further encourage them to renegotiate their contracts at least back to 2008 levels.

Upper level public servants should receive no contractual increases, nor enhanced professional perks, such as vehicle allowances, as long as those farther down the chain of command are taking cuts or giving up raises — or worse.

In this way, they share the load.