A significant loss of public sector jobs since the Great Recession has led city governments to rely more heavily on temporary employees to deliver basic services.

Dayton has shed 306 full-time jobs and $23 million in personnel costs at the same time spending $4.3 million to hire temporary workers from 2005 through August, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of public records.

Kettering, Xenia, Centerville and Englewood all have faced the same pressures, though on a smaller scale.

“Cities can’t keep their old ways of service delivery given their shrinking tax base,”said Myron Levine,a Wright State University professor who specializes in city issues and politics. Using temporary workers makes sense because “it avoids permanent expenses (wages, insurance and pensions) to the work force, expenses that may not be wise in these economic times.”

Using temporary workers also allows cities the flexibility to hire workers when they are needed and release them when they are not, Levine said. He declined to speculate what, if any, effect temporary workers had on the level and quality of city services.

Two departments dominate use of temp workers

The two biggest users of temporary workers from 2008 to the end of August in Dayton were the Public Works and Finance departments. City commissioners have approved nearly $1.5 million for Public Works and nearly $1.1 million for Finance.

The Public Works temporary workers were hired as seasonal employees for street maintenance. Finance asked for temporary workers to help with income tax collection and as extra resources during the preparation of the city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, according to the contracts approved by the commissioners.

Prior to 2010, the city directly hired most of its seasonal workers. Public Works jumped into temporary pool in 2011 to the tune of more than $1.1 million. So far this year, commissioners have approved $352,000 in temporary hires for Public Works.

Finance, on the other hand, has gotten commission approval every year since 2008 for specialized temporary workers — $32,000 in 2008, rising to $291,400 last year. So far this year, the commission has approved $208,000 for Finance.

“The key question is where does it (outsourcing) make sense?” Levine said. “Not all outsourcing saves the city money.”

Problems arise when contractors don’t perform, when there is no truly competitive bidding or when the city does not manage the contract as it should, Levine said.

Temporary employees, however, give city managers a predictability in costs, said Tim Riordan, Dayton city manager.

“With the direct hires, we had the liability for unemployment insurance, workers comp. With a temp agency you have a fixed cost, and you need that in this economic climate,” he said.

What other cities s are doing

Kettering had 558 full-time employees in 2008. That number dropped to 376 this year through attrition and conversion of some full-time positions to part-time, City Manager Mark Schwieterman said. There was also a combination of duties.

He said there has not been “much effect on core services. We have used technology efficiencies and creative scheduling.”

“For the first time, we recently contracted with a temporary agency for a couple clerical staff,” he said. “The demand for services has not declined. It’s getting to the point in 2012 that we should start to fill (full-time) positions.

“We either fill positions or reassess how we provide services.”

Greg Horn, Centerville city manager, like many of his colleagues said the shedding of full-time employees through attrition and job elimination started in the early 2000s. Centerville has dropped 30 full-time employees to 163 and has limited the use of temps to fall leaf pickup.

“This year we’ll spend about $20,000 on temporary employees,” Horn said.

Xenia went through two rounds of layoffs in 2003 and 2009, totaling 36 full-time positions, City Manager Jim Percival said. Voter approval of a tax increase in 2010 allowed the city to restore 12 positions — six police officers and six firefighters. The city has mothballed the recreation department and combined positions, currently employing 212 full-timers with an additional 23 positions either unfilled or eliminated.

“The only temporary position we have is a specific need and skill set: one IT position,” he said.

Englewood no longer has a city engineer as part of its efforts to trim personnel costs.

“The duties have been absorbed by others, including myself, and a consultant,” City Manager Eric Smith said. Smith once worked for the city in the engineering department.

The city has 67 full-time employees, including two additional employees added to the city’s income tax department when the city took over collecting its own taxes rather than contract the collection to Vandalia.

“They have improved the collection process. Instead of paying the fee to Vandalia, we pay the money to the employees, who have been more aggressive in collections. So it’s a wash,” Smith said.

“We stayed pretty stable in our full-time employment,” he said.

The city continues to spend $20,000-$25,000 annually to hire local college students for summer jobs, something Smith said is very effective. “It provides them with money and us with low-cost labor without paying benefits.”

Residents differ on use of temporary workers

Marcia Knox, regional director based in Dayton of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, argues the loss of full-time jobs affects the city’s ability to deliver its core services. “This is not building a community of committed workers. … It’s getting harder to deliver the services we promised the citizens.”

Neighborhood leaders see both pluses and minuses in the use of temporary workers, but can’t say what impact these workers have on the quality of city services.

“Trying to get trash picked up is like pulling teeth,” said Lodia Furnas, president Burkhardt/Springfield neighborhood in east Dayton. Over the past five years, Furnas said bulk waste pickups have suffered. “Sometimes they pick it up, sometimes they don’t.”

“Some of our alley ways are overgrown,” she said.

Furnas could not say whether her perception of declining services was directly related to the use of temporary workers or the city’s declining resources.

“I know we’re short on city services,” she said.

Kevin Jones, FROC Priority Board chairman, had praise for the use of temporary workers.

“We used to have vacant lots that looked like wheat fields. Those summer workers are now out there mowing them more than once a season,” he said. “It’s a redistribution of funds. When Mr. Riordan walked the neighborhoods, folks jumped on him about the vacant lots. He got it taken care of.”

Lynn McClung of the Five Oaks neighborhood said she understood the city was operating with reduced staff. “I have a lot of issues with housing inspection because I live in a very vacant neighborhood.”

Both Jones and Furnas agreed with McClung that code enforcement had dropped off, probably because the city’s inspection staff had been cut by half over the past few years.

“The cities have no choice,” WSU’s Levine said. “The primary motive is the fiscal pressures, plus the responsibilty to the taxpayers. They (the cities) can’t sustain the old ways of doing business.”