Fate of Four-Day Work Week Still Undecided

While it was not an agenda item, several residents stood before the borough council Tuesday to inquire about the status of the borough possibly going back to a five-day work week. The council has not yet made a decision, but borough employees, and the public, seem anxious to see whether Borough Hall will soon be open on Fridays.

As it currently stands, borough employees work Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., but if the borough were to revert back to the five days, Borough Hall would be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Bloomingdale council majority had asked Borough Attorney Mark Semeraro to look into the that were prepared for several borough employees under the previous administration. While Semeraro concluded that the contracts set forth term limitations for the employees that were contrary to state statute, and therefore unenforceable, they also included a clause that detailed the four-day work week, which Semeraro believes to be unenforceable as well.

Council President Linda Huntley said that the majority wished to take a closer look at the four-day work week, as she said she has heard from many residents that they would prefer that Borough Hall be open on Fridays. , some residents reiterated what Huntley had said about preferring the additional day, while others said they would not be able to get to Borough Hall if it closed by 4:30 p.m. But convenience was not the only thing the borough considered when initially moving to a four-day work week.

The four-day work week, which was originally called the "Going Green Schedule," began with a trial period on June 20, 2008 and was scheduled to end on Labor Day that year. The "green" aspect is because less electricity and gas would be used with borough employees not in the offices and less gas from motor vehicles would be used by not requiring employees to drive to work the fifth day. Borough Administrator Ted Ehrenburg said he, personally, drives 100 miles round trip per day to get to work.

In a memo obtained by Patch and dated June 6, 2008, Ehrenburg  sought approval for the trial period and told the mayor and council at the time, "With our economy in a downward spiral, the borough will again need to find new ways to offset these fuel increases and meet these challenges without raising taxes. The borough would like, in addition to all ways to conserve energy, [to] use more efficient materials and in this case, try something new to save operational costs." The council voted on the measure, which was also called "summer hours" in the resolution, on that day, with all councilmembers voting in favor of the four-day work week, with the exception of Councilman Bernie Vroom, who abstained.

Ehrenburg wrote in the memo that the first benefit of the trial schedule would be to allow residents to visit Borough Hall a half hour earlier than previously, as well as have the option to take care of borough business later in the day. The second benefit, Ehrenburg wrote, was that it would allow the borough to research the mechanical costs of operating the borough to determine what ways the borough could further save money. During a council meeting on November 17, 2008, Ehrenburg said that the finance department had not yet had enough time to review the mechanical cost records and asked that the trial be extended. The trial period continued after then-Councilman Dean Specchio moved that the trial period be extended until December 1, 2008, with all councilmembers voting in favor of the extension with the exception of Huntley, who abstained.

On February 2, 2008, the council voted on a resolution to continue the four-day work week from that day forward. All councilmembers voted in favor of the resolution with the exception of Huntley, who voted "present."

In another memo dated January 7, 2009, Ehrenburg provided the mayor and council with the monthly cost savings amounts. In the memo, Ehrenburg said the borough was saving $129.45 per month on electricity and $240.89 per month on gas. "These figures may seem on the surface small, but will be the initial seed to start long-term savings to the borough," he wrote. "The borough will have a net savings of $370.34 per month or $4,444.08 per year to start at a minimum."

Ehrenburg said Wednesday that he does not know the exact dollar amount of savings this year and that it is hard to estimate because the building, which holds Borough Hall is open on Fridays and the weekends for the police station and Bloomingdale Free Public Library. Huntley also did not provide dollar amounts, but said that the four-day work week is neither saving nor costing the borough money.

"There is no difference in the costs to the borough having a five-day work week versus a four-day work week," she said Thursday. "The electric and the heat are still being used in Borough Hall. As such, there is no savings. There also are no additional costs. It is really a matter of providing the service to the borough and its citizens."

But what Ehrenburg said he was sure of was that if the entire building were to stay closed throughout the weekend, the borough would save. "If you closed this Borough Hall Thursday night at 10 [p.m.] and didn't crack it open until Monday morning at 6 [a.m.], there would be a savings," he said. Ehrenburg said the reality is that the building needs to at least remain open for the library and police station currently, although the borough has purchased another building for the police station to potentially move to.

Ehrenburg said  at the March 29 meeting that the four-day work week is also a way of giving back to residents in the form of donated time by the employees who work longer hours. During the meeting, Ehrenburg read from a memo he had written to the budget committee on February 9, 2009, in which he had stated that eleven employees who had been working the four-day week had donated a total of 572 hours in 2009.

"The financial impact was identified by using each individual's hourly wage and multiplying their hourly rate times 52 weeks," he wrote. "The taxpayers are receiving back $22,000 from the staff, or half a tax point."

Huntley said Thursday the council majority is considering having Borough Hall stay open late one night per week and staggering the hours so that residents would be able to come on Friday but also have a night to come later to do borough business.

"We are exploring either having staggered work hours or staying open one night per week and having the different departments work staggered hours for those days," Huntley said. "We are still in the developing stage for this. We have good employees who truly want to serve the borough and its citizens, so I am sure we will be able to work out a schedule that will work well for the borough and its employees."