There is good news and bad news to report to the membership following an afternoon at the County Board Building.
Many members who would be affected by layoffs (and several others) attended the County Board meeting today and most spoke to some of the Commissioners and/or their staff about the impact the cuts would have on the office and their jobs. The Board voted, however, to adopt the budget with the 4% cuts. That’s the bad news.
But at the same meeting, questions were raised by Commissioner Suffredin about whether adopting the budget would lead to the layoff of Assistant Public Defenders. The head of the Bureau of Administration, Mark Killgallon, addressed the Commissioners and told them that he would be working with the Public Defenders office to prevent the layoff of front-line attorneys. Continued questioning on this issue was not had due to a motion by Commissioner Periaca who argued that further discussion was not appropriate and out of order since the Finance Committee had already addressed these issues and voted for across-the-board cuts in previous sessions. So the assurance from Killgallon that he would work with the office to make sure there were no layoffs is the “good news.”
On Monday, February 23rd, the union will be meeting with the Public Defender to discuss the budget and find other areas to implement budget cuts. In addition, talks are ongoing with the Board President’s office to determine if money not utilized by other departments may also be used to prevent the layoffs of front-line attorneys.
So while there is reason to be nervous, it’s not yet time to panic. As soon as I have more information, I will update the membership.
In Solidarity,
K. S. Galhotra, President
Local 3315
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