In light of the current economic situation with a deficit of $500,000, DeKalb needs to do something to avoid bigger issues.

Laying off 20 workers will definitely have its effect on the city. Of the city’s 235 workers, these workers represent 8.5 percent of the city’s workforce.

Maybe it will take a little longer to plow the streets in the event of a snow storm. Perhaps roads may not be salted as quickly with fewer workers to salt them.

The city will still have all the same needs no matter where these layoffs occur.

It’s unfortunate for the workers whose jobs will be lost and their families, but at least in the end, the city will not be facing a much bigger deficit problem.

“The economic situations do warrant something other than the status quo,” said Mark Biernacki, city manager. “The status quo, as from a budgetary point of view, will continue to result in an imbalanced budget and will probably continue to get worse if something’s not done to address it.”

The workers still employed by the city will be spread much more thinly as a result. They will be expected to do their own jobs, plus the jobs of the 20 employees whose positions are planned to be cut.

“I think that calls that come in could be established on a priority list basis,” said Mike Taylor, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 813. “Some of the little things that we do now might not be responded to as quickly as I think our workers will be asked to do, and that’s going to be hard to absorb.”

There isn’t one specific cause for the deficit. I don’t really want to play the blame game here. The situation will still stand.

I’m more interested in raising a few questions for the city, such as whether the city is only required to audit their books once a year. If so, I wonder why that is.

When the 2007 fiscal year ended June 30, the city decided to “keep it a flat, hastier budget” for 2008, Biernacki said, “based on the trends that we’re seeing.”

“Those trends don’t become a reality until you actually audit your books,” he said. “That audit was completed this past December, and it was then that we knew for sure that the previous year ended with a $500,000 budget deficit.”

It was then, in December, that the city first announced the budget deficit to the public. Biernacki said he has continued to track these trends in January, and budgets are going to have to be all reconsidered.

If the next audit is not completed until this December, how can the city government know for sure if the deficit has not gotten worse?

I just wonder, is tracking trends enough?