JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The management and boards of 10 small credit unions that serve the Missouri Department of Transportation’s 10 districts will have to look for new facilities after a budget-cutting move by the state expelled them from their decades-old offices on state property.
"We’ve all been evicted," said Brenda Rempe, president of District 4 Highway CU, in Lee-S Summit, a Kansas City suburb, after last week’s vote by the six-member state Highway Commission.
The credit unions, varying in size from $12 million in assets to $19 million, were given until Sept. 30 to lay off the 27 employees involved, and until Dec. 31, 2012, to vacate their offices, some of which they have occupied for as long as 50 years. Those still on MoDOT premises in January must begin paying rent.
Among the options being reviewed are a roll-up of the 10 credit unions which serve about 18,000 state employees, all employees of the Department of Transportation or Highway Patrol or their family members, and hold about $140 million in assets. "I guess now all options are open," Rempe told Credit Union Journal yesterday.
The move, though purportedly budgetary in motive, will save few funds – an estimated $20,000 a year for the state – because the credit unions reimburse the state for all employee salaries and benefits. But it will allow the Highway Department to claim a reduction of 27 employees as it moves to cut its budget by $200 million a year. Savings on utilities for the small offices are expected to be negligible.
Rempe, one of the employees involved, said the credit unions have offered to pay rent, which up until now has been subsidized by MoDOT.
"We’re going to have to find a new location," said Rempe. "Some employees are being terminated as of Sept. 30 of this year and we’re going to have to hustle to come up with payroll plans and health benefits." The credit unions are going to have to find new offices, and new computers in some cases.
Peggy Nalls, chief state lobbyist for the Missouri CU Association, said the league has been working with the DOT to stop the expulsion of the 10 credit unions, what she called "being kicked to the curb." She said the trade group has offered to pay fair market rents and a management fee, but the offers were declined.
The league will assist the credit unions in finding new locations and the proper technology, said Nalls. "If MoDOT’s moving them out all of them will have to find new offices," she said.
