Deerfield Beach suddenly lays off 106 city
palmbeachpost.com
DEERFIELD BEACH-FL — Economic hard times hit the city dramatically on Friday as officials laid off 106 employees in the city's parks and recreation, public works and environmental services departments.
The city cut 24 full-time and 82 part-time employees, immediately relieving them of their duties. The part-time workers will receive two weeks of severance pay, while the full-time employees will be paid through Sept. 30, officials said.
"These are extremely challenging economic times, and this was not an easy decision to recommend," interim City Manager Burgess Hanson said in a prepared statement. "Unfortunately, financial constraints resulting from the loss of property values and the continued decline in the Florida and U.S. economies required changes in our operations of city departments."
Only a handful of the affected employees showed up at a last-minute, 2 p.m. meeting in the City Commission chambers where they were told of the decision. Many may not find out their jobs are gone until the next time they return to work, said parks worker Archie Guner, one of the laid off employees.
"We've got family. We've got cars. We've got to feed our kids,'' said Guner, 38, who got the call to go to City Hall while on his way home after finishing his morning shift of beach maintenance.
Guner was also irritated that four Broward County Sheriff's Office deputies and a sergeant stood watch at the meeting in case the situation got out of control.
"Ain't no way in hell that this should have happened like this," Guner said.
The positions are being cut as part Hanson's plan for his upcoming recommended budget, which he is scheduled to present to commissioners on Tuesday. The new budget year starts Oct. 1.
The three affected departments listed 290 full-time and 167 part-time employees in the city's current budget. The layoffs would amount to 8 percent of the full-time and 49 percent of the part-time employees in those departments.
Burgess had left his office for the day after the announcement and did not return a call to his cell phone. Few of the workers at City Hall on Friday afternoon had even heard about the layoffs.
"Oh my gosh, that's terrible," City Clerk Ada Graham-Johnson said. "We didn't know anything about it."
Gerald Ferguson, director of planning and growth management, said there had been talks about possible layoffs, but "I haven't received any formal notification."
Steve Hall, the business representative for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, whichrepresents many of the laid off workers, said the union was given no advanced warning.
"I think that's disrespectful," Hall said. He was concerned the city might try to deny unemployment benefits to the employees.
And that's exactly what Guner said he was told.
"We don't understand why we can't file for unemployment," said Guner, who has a wife and three children to support.
It's unclear why workers may have been told that they couldn't file for unemployment compensation.
"You're not going to lay me off and then deny me my unemployment," said Cassandra E. Moye, 44, another of the laid off parks workers. She said she has five grandchildren to support. "You've already taken the bread out of my mouth. Now, what are you going to do? Send me to my grave?"
Moye and Guner said they had been working 34 hours a week until a few months ago, when the city cut back part-timers to 30 hours a week. They were told their hours were being reduced to avoid layoffs. |
