Two Madison County, MS cities are considering swapping out their five-day work week for four-day work week to combat high energy prices.
City officials in Ridgeland, MS and Canton, MS said that shortening the work week in favor of 10-hour days and three-day weekends, as Southaven and Pearl have done, is an option on the table.
"We have department heads looking at how this might work for us," Ridgeland, MS Mayor Gene McGee said. "We will not do it as a knee jerk reaction if it will not save money for the city as well as employees. We also have to be sure (not to) compromise the services to our citizens."
These talks come after Ridgeland, MS city officials appropriated nearly $200,000 in gas money from its budget in recent weeks to bail out the Police Department, Public Works and Recreation and Parks.
Canton, MS Mayor Fred Esco said he has been in talks with a few aldermen about shortening the work week for Canton city employees. Two weeks ago, the city raised the fines for moving violations and misdemeanor offenses by $10 to pump more money into the police department for gas.
"Certainly we are looking at it (a four-day work week)," Esco said.
"If the price of gas continues to escalate, certainly I think that's something that would be at our best interest."
Realistically, a four-day work week isn't a likelihood for Madison County, MS, said Donnie Caughman, county administrator.
"State law requires all our offices to be open 8-5 Monday through Friday," he said.
Caughman said he's touched up brought up the topic briefly to department heads, but the idea didn't generate much interest because of the need for the offices of tax assessor, tax collector, chancery clerk and circuit clerk to be open to the public daily.
"We can't see where it would save us any money," he said.
The road department doesn't have to be on the job five days a week, but "the problem with that is they're already working six days a week now with so much to do," Caughman said.
In the city of Madison, MS a four-day week "is not even on the table" for consideration, Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler said.
"We don't even know what a five-day work week is like," she said with a laugh.
Flora Mayor Scott Greaves said a shorter work week "could help, no doubt," but it's not something he has seriously considered.
Southaven was the first Mississippi city to approve the four-day work week, which employees will take up beginning Aug. 4 to coincide with the start of school.
Pearl's Public Works Department, which includes water, sewer, solid waste and street crews, has been on a four-day work week for about three weeks now, said Pearl Mayor Jimmy Foster.
When asked if the shorter work week had made a difference in fuel costs, Foster said, "It's too early to tell."
"They (Public Works) had expended through the end of June roughly 85 percent of their fuel budget," he said.
"We had to try something. We're going to see what that does."
Other Mississippi counties, school districts and cities, such as Brandon , MS and Hattiesburg, have been discussing moving to a four-day work week as a means to slice energy costs. Gov. Haley Barbour even has suggested adopting the shorter, 10-hour-a-day work week for state employees.
The four-day work week has become somewhat of a national trend.
Utah, the first state to scale back its work week, approved the measure in June, prompting many states and cities around the nation to take notice, and in some cases, follow suit.
Arkansas has been discussing having its state employees operate on the shorter work week, while cities such as Birmingham, Ala., and Avondale, Ariz., have already approved it.
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