The four-day week works
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When town of Fishkill Supervisor Joan Pagones saw gas prices pushing past  the $4 mark in May, she wanted to find a way reduce electric and fuel costs for constituents and staff.
Result? Pagones and the town board came up with a “bailout” plan of their own: a four-day work week.Â
The good news? The town”™s “bailout plan” isn”™t costing taxpayers a cent, has helped save money and has created a happier, more productive work force. Â (Fishkill”™s 2009 budget will be passed without any increase to taxpayers, a benchmark the municipality has hit for 16 years in a row.)Â
Rather than having employees work a 35 hour week over five days, town administrators opted to condense town staff”™s 35-hour work week into four days and close its offices on Fridays. The trial began in June.
“Initially, we kept the Town Hall opened one evening during the week, in case someone needed to come in,” said Pagones. “Surprisingly, only one person took advantage of the extended hours during the entire summer. We saw most of the traffic in the early morning.”
James Fox, town tax receiver, agreed. “Most of our contractors and residents like to come in early and take care of business before they head to work. To our delight, the change in hours has worked for the public. We”™ve had no complaints.”
The town”™s highway department was another area where Pagones saw an opportunity to utilize the same methodology. “When a crew is out doing road work, it usually takes an hour just to set up cones, get equipment in place and make sure traffic is re-directed,” said Robert Wheeling, Fishkill”™s comptroller. “When they”™re done, it”™s another hour of dismantling equipment, packing up and bringing it all back to the highway department, then going through the setup the next day. By putting the highway staff on a 10-hour day as opposed to an eight-hour day, that saved an extra eight hours a week in just setting up and taking down ”“ and resulted in getting jobs done in less time.”
When September came, Fishkill decided to stick with the program. Now, town hall employees work their 35 hours from Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. The highway department employees work 10-hour days from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. beginning in April through the end of October. Â “November through April, the highway department goes back to its regular eight-hour, five-day work week, working 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. That”™s snow season, and we can”™t tell our taxpayers the highway department is going to get paid overtime to work on Fridays,” said Pagones.
Two town agencies are exempt from the four-day policy: the police department, and the senior-youth recreation center. “The police are not on this schedule for obvious reasons,” said Pagones. “No police station closes down and goes home for the day. We currently have our senior center and youth recreation facilities in the lower level of town hall. Once our new senior and youth recreation center opens, we”™ll be able to totally shut down town hall, which will result in significant savings in heating the building and using electricity.”Â
The town”™s new $3.6 million senior and youth recreation center, built on what Pagones calls the “municipal campus” on Route 52, was made possible with parkland funds garnered from developers and will open in early 2009. “At that time,” says Wheeling, “we”™ll be able to move those services out of Town Hall and be able to cut expenses even further by shutting down the entire building. To date, we”™ve saved approximately $10,000. We”™re shooting for saving at least 5 percent of our expenses, which will be approximately $58,000.”
“The four-day work week did take some getting used to,” said Joanne Shebanie, legislative aide, “My family and I were used to my 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. hours. But we”™ve adjusted, and it”™s really worked out very well.”
Pagones says it is not only cost effective, but worker morale and increased productivity are two significant benefits of the four-day week. Â “Happier employees are willing to work harder and put forth their best effort,” said the longtime supervisor. “As public servants, the more positive we are when dealing with the people who pay our salaries, the happier our taxpayers are. It seems pretty much a no-brainer.”
The town of Fishkill and the town of Wappingers Falls also share a single assessor, another cost-saving measure that Pagones says has worked out well for both municipalities. The municipal share has continued despite a new supervisor with a different political affiliation than his predecessor, said Pagones. “There”™s no room in pubic service for deciding you will only deal with another municipality if you are in the same political party. This is not our money we are spending. It is taxpayer money, and they deserve the best service at the lowest possible cost, no matter what party you belong to.”
The subject of sharing services was part of a Pattern for Progress seminar at SUNY New Paltz in November, where the town of Fishkill”™s methodology was introduced. On Dec. 8, several municipalities from Orange County will be traveling to a 9:30 a.m. meeting at the Fishkill Town Hall to meet with Pagones and her colleagues to discern if a four-day work week is doable in their own municipalities. Â Â