Police & Fire to Face Layoffs
The layoffs could affect between 6 & 10 employees between the two departments.

Jason Croker, president of the Urbana Firefighters Local 1823, said police and firefighters are the only city employees facing layoffs. He said it's the first time he can remember that firefighters were threatened with layoffs.

Sound familiar, Porktowners? Bear in mind, this is Urbana, OH, we are talking about which has roughly the population of Cincinnati's Northside neighborhood. A 10% cut is fewer people but probably more acute than in Cincinnati. The population is more likely to know the names of the city employees, too.
Gangs tend to like smaller owns like Urbana & Hamilton because the police don't have the resources to deal with them, even in good times. Urbana also has an older housing stock, similar, probably, to Northside as well.
Union reps, same as in Cincinnati say they have never been the target of reductions. Union reps, same as in Cincinnati vow to fight any layoffs.
From what I have read, municipalities are not expected to see any relief form the current economic meltdown til, at least, 2011/12. With cities required to have balanced budgets from year to year there is no way to operate in the red the way a private company might do & there is no near end to the problems we are facing. Cincinnati just approved a budget that raided it's capital fund to the tune of about 30%. We can't do that again & like I said, predictions for better municipal revenue aren't slated for 2010.
FWIW, swimming pools and recreation centers are considered crime prevention tools - not perks.
This is not just a local issue. It is not an attempt to bust up unions by the cities, but, from the myopic attitudes of the unions, I am thinking, more and more, that that might not be a bad idea.

Noose Son story here.