Officials: City jobs are safe

By Eloria Newell James, community@leadercall.com

May 17, 2008 11:53 am

— Members of the Laurel City Council and city officials met in a City Council Personnel Committee meeting Friday where officials agreed not to eliminate any jobs currently filled.
“The bottom line is that no one will lose a job,” said Council member Johnny Magee, chairman of the council’s personnel committee. “No one will lose their job and not be able to support their families.”
In April a proposal to eliminate five positions in the City of Laurel caused some heated discussions during a Laurel City Council meeting.
According to the April order proposed for the council, the positions slated for elimination were field inspector, code enforcement officer, business development director, risk manager and grant writer.
Based on the information provided to the council, the positions would make available $207,808.28 to be used for other projects.
Salary and benefits for the field inspector are listed at a total of $28,583.91; code enforcement officer (which is a position created due to the Rental Ordinance) is listed at $28,583.91; while the business development director’s salary and benefits are listed at $38,583.91; the risk manager, $55,113.14 and the grant writer at $36,943.41.
After a lengthy discussion, officials decided to refer the proposed order to the personnel committee.
Council president George Carmichael said Friday that he recommended the elimination of the positions to reduce some of the demands of city government.
However, prior to recommending it, he had talked to each council member and the administration concerning the matter.
“Over a year and a half we have been talking about our need to cut back,” Carmichael said. “With the proposal, nobody would have lost a job. Nobody would have been out of a job.”
Carmichael said the administration had agreed to reassign any individual affected by the proposal.
Councilman Manuel Jones said he believe some action is needed.
“I still think there’s too many people in the inspection department,” Jones said.
“We have been talking about when positions become vacant in City Hall through employees retiring or quitting, they will not be immediately filled,” Mayor Melvin Mack told the group. “We are making efforts to reassign the duties for those positions prior to hiring additional people.”
Mack also told the committee that the administration was submitting an order for Tuesday’s meeting to eliminate the business development director’s position.
Also during Friday’s meeting, the committee and the administration agreed that the city would not need to fill the risk manager position. However, the city’s human resource officer will assume the safety portion of the risk manager’s position while the city’s payroll technician and benefit coordinator will take on some additional duties currently being handled by the human resource officer.
“I’m about harmony. I’m not about confusion,” Carmichael said. “I have no problem in supporting this. Basically, we are going to get the same thing done with the same people and less money.”
Councilman Tony Thaxton said he’s pleased with the proposals.
“This is a good thing to do,” Thaxton said. “Rather than hire another person, it’s good to use the people already here.”
Councilwoman Willie L. Evans said she has a concern with putting too much on the employees.
“I have a concern of doubling two jobs — human resources and risk management,” Evans said.
Laurel’s Chief Administrative Officer Gary Suddith said he agreed, assuring the council that he and the human resource director, who was in attendance at Friday’s meeting, had reviewed this matter.
“We believe these employees can handle this,” Suddith said. “It saves the city money at a time we should be looking at being as efficient as possible with the taxpayers’ dollars.”
The group also decided that the grant writer position and the two inspection positions would not be eliminated.
Magee said the group believes the two inspection positions will be eliminated through attrition.
At the conclusion of Friday’s meeting, the committee agreed to refer these matters to the entire city council.
The council will decide whether to approve these requested items and other matters during its 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday at Laurel City Hall.

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