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The city of Hartford is preparing to lay off at least a dozen people later this month. As Jeff Cohen reports, Mayor Pedro Segarra needs to reduce his staff to balance his budget.
Segarra's tight operating budget for this year included $1 million in concessions from the city's unionized workers. The mayor offered them three unpaid furlough days in exchange for a guarantee of no layoffs. At least one union rejected the offer while another said it wouldn't consider it, given that its currently in larger contract negotiations with city hall. That means Segarra still has to find $1 million in his budget to keep it balanced.
In a press release sent out just before the beginning of a long Labor Day Weekend, Segarra said he will likely have to lay off at least 12 people -- mostly from middle management. The mayor said he regrets having to do so, but that he has to keep the budget in line.
Some on the city council from the Working Families Party have said they opposed layoffs, especially those that will affect front-line workers.
Ken Kennedy is a Democrat on the city council. I asked him whether it was a hard for city's unions to take unpaid days off when the mayor had recently given his managers and office staff raises.
"I will concede that probably the timing wasn't the best."
But, Kennedy says the furlough days the mayor is asking for are relatively minor fixes to what was a big budget problem.
For WNPR, I'm Jeff Cohen.
