Citing a need to make sure the department’s expenditures match income, Phil Williams, public works director, confirmed Tuesday that three Bremerton employees will be laid off. One was informed Friday, another on Tuesday and the third was to be notified on Wednesday.
Williams said two of the employees are in the street division. A third employee is one who had planned to retire, but reconsidered. That employee will be given the lay-off notice, but under union rules will be able to replace someone else with less seniority. That will continue until a position is eliminated.
The street fund crew has been able to do work for other departments, such as paving work at the National Guard Readiness Center and construction at the new downtown memorial park, but “even with that we were barely kind of breaking even,” Williams said. “It was pretty obvious we needed to cut even more.”
The street fund borrowed $100,000 from the city’s Equipment Reserve Fund to shore up cash flow until revenues pick up during the summer.
Well, I sure hope that employee that was going to retire, reconsiders and actually does retire…
Sun,
I’m not sure if you realize that many public employees retirement check is tied to stock market. Why should someone with almost 20 years service be made the scapegoat. Why not consider laying off a manager or two if the budget is so crunched? How about not subsidizing the condos, tunnel project with massive extras (its not all “free” money,how about not funding the boardwalk that we cannot afford to build or maintain? There are numerous ways to trim the budget, forcing someone to quit who is close to retirement and has more institutional knowledge than almost every engineer manager hardly seems fair.