(Updated: 1:01 p.m.) Margo Wilson-Butcher, a 63-year-old clerk in the parks department, came to work for the last time Friday, as a new round of layoffs sent a blow to the city’s recreation services.
She was one of 27 city workers laid off Friday. After Mayor John DeStefano announced the layoffs at a budget address Thursday night, some workers spent a sleepless night wondering whose job would be cut.
Cuts included Gary Hogan, a deputy director of the Livable City Initiative and three elderly services specialists. The mayor plans to eliminate another 127 filled, full-time jobs from the Board of Education at the end of the school year.
Wilson-Butcher was in charge of issuing permits for city parks. By cutting her job and three recreation supervisors, the mayor effectively gutted the city’s recreation staff.
“Slowly but surely, they’re going to get rid of all recreation,” warned Larry Amendola, the last man standing in the city’s community recreation department, besides deputy director of parks Bill Dixon. The community rec wing lost seven people since last July.
Amendola is also the president of Local 3144, the city’s management union. His union suffered 18 layoffs. Seven employees in AFSCME Local 884 lost their jobs. Another two cuts came to non-unionized workers.
In order to close a budget gap without layoffs, DeStefano requested $10 million in union givebacks. In the end, only two bargaining units agreed to make a deal, securing them a two-year no-layoff clause. The city rejected a concessions offer from Local 3144, saying the offer fell $300,000 short of its target. The mayor said he would have accepted the savings package if the union agreed to add three furlough days; Amendola refused the counteroffer.
Local 884, which represents classified employees, refused concessions, arguing its members could not afford any givebacks.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said the union president, Ronald Hobson, of Friday’s cuts.
Among those laid off was Ronald Stephens (at left in photo), who ran recreation programming at the East Shore’s Nathan Hale School. He ran after-school programs for kids, adult volleyball games, intramural sports and three summer camps out of Lighthouse Point Park.
The prospect of layoffs had been “hanging over our heads for over a year,” Stephens said. “I can’t say I was shocked, but I was extremely disappointed – especially for the people in the community that we serve.”
Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts said the layoffs will lead to cuts in recreation programming for adults, but summer camps for children won’t suffer significant reductions. The city seeks to continue some recreation programming at its Open Schools sites, he said. The city still has an eight-person “nature recreation” department, including six park rangers. There’s money in the budget for seasonal workers to run programs, too.
Dolores Stafford, a city housing inspector, also found her name on the latest layoff list. Stafford, who has two kids in high school, said she has worked for the city for 18 years.
“I feel terrible,” she said. “I won’t be able to pay my mortgage off of unemployment.”
“Do Not Sign”
Cheryln Poindexter, vice-president of Local 3144, said her union plans to file a grievance over the city’s practice of using 19-hour employees and other non-union workers to take on what she described as union work. Her union distributed a list of such positions totaling over $1 million.
“That’s somebody’s salary in that room,” she said, pointing to a hearing room where booted workers were briefed about their benefits. “And they got laid off.”
“This is our work!” said Poindexter. The list included 13 so-called “double-dippers,” employees who retired from Local 3144 positions, started receiving a pension, then got rehired to 19-hour contractual jobs.
Emmet Hibson (pictured), who oversees the city’s HR and labor relations departments, defended the practice. The contractual workers aren’t stealing union work, he argued: They’re offering a unique skill set at a good price.
“There absolutely is a value to using part-timers,” Hibson argued.
Hibson and other city officials explained benefits to laid-off workers at a 10 a.m. meeting in the Hall of Records Friday.
Not all of those whose positions were cut may end up out of work, Hibson said: Many are veteran workers with “bumping rights,” meaning they stand to bump a less-senior worker out of a job, if they’re qualified to do that line of work.
Everyone who got a pink slip was given two weeks of severance pay and medical benefits until the end of March, Hibson said. Those who agreed to sign a general waiver were also offered this retirement package: medical benefits until June 30; an added three years of service, and two years of age, for pension calculations; and an extra one week’s pay for every three years of service.
“Do not sign these things,” urged Poindexter in a union meeting after the city’s briefing. By signing off on the retirement deal, workers would give up their right to sue the city for employment discrimination, she warned.
Here’s the layoff list of workers, their jobs and departments:
Cynthia Ballard, clerk typist, Traffic and Parking
Carmen Buenaventura, supervisory auditor, Finance
Gwendolyn Crutchfield, data control clerk II, Public Works
Elaine Delucia, housing inspector, LCI
Flora Dielsi, executive administrative assistant, Corporation Counsel
Dinella Dodd, public liability investigator, Corporation Counsel
Wilbert Frazier, recreation program supervisor, Parks
Mary Gargano, account clerk IV, Police
Viola Guglielmi, elderly services specialist
Diane Hammet, account clerk II, Police
Gary Hogan, deputy director of LCI
Brian Hornby, executive assistant to director of cultural affairs
John Huettner, special projects director, Community Services Administration
Raymond Keeley, systems programmer trainee, Finance
Robert Newman, payroll/benefit auditor, Finance
Shirley Nixon, administrative assistant II, Finance
Irrita Osborne, elderly services specialist
George Phillips, employment representative, Commission on Equal Opportunities
Donna Schulz, account clerk II, Public Works
Felicia Shashinka, recreation program supervisor, Parks
Dolores Stafford, housing inspector, LCI
Ronald Stephens, recreation program supervisor, Parks
Dominic Tammaro, public liability investigator, Corporation Counsel
Reginald Thomas, civilian review coordinator, Chief Administrative Office
Douglas Toth, elderly services specialist
Frances Walker, administrative assistant II, Public Works
Margo Wilson-Butcher, administrative analyst, Parks
Why isn't Reggie Mayo's name on this list?