Commissioners Vote to Cut $86 Million Worth of Staff
and Services from Fulton County's 2010 Budget
Posted November 19, 2009; updated November 21, 2009; updated November 29, 2009
According to a story
posted today to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website, the Fulton county Board of Commissioners adopted a
recommendation from the county's budget commission to lay off employees and eliminate services that would save the county
$86 million next year.
At a special meeting conducted on Thursday the 19th, the Commissioners' approved one of several budget-cutting options
presented to them by the county manager. Those options are
posted at the county government's website.
The commissioners must now approve the specific lists of staff and service cuts that the various county departments have
submitted. The Commissioners final approval of the 2010 budget is scheduled for mid-January.
November 21st Update: The County Manager met on Friday, November 20th with "randomly selected county employees" to
discuss the budget cuts. We've heard no reports that any library employees were among those the County Manager met with, or
what got discussed.
November 29th Update: On November 23rd, the County Manager sent to all county employees an
update on what budget-cutting measures the Commissioners approved at their November 19th meeting.
More Cuts in Staff and Services in the Works at AFPL?
Posted November 12, 2009; updated November 16, November 17, and November 19, 2009
Although the library system and other county departments are already burdened with a hiring freeze and although the
library system has already sustained a major cut in its materials and personnel budget for 2009, far more
radical cuts may be on the way.
County budgets are determined by projected county revenues. Those revenues dropped dramatically during the current economic
recession - a pattern that has adversely affected tax-funded municipal agencies, including many public library systems,
throughout the country.
Although library employees have been reassured more than once that Fulton County is better off financially than other
metropolitan Atlanta counties, the projected 2009 revenues available to operate county agencies in 2010 are lower than
originally expected.
Although neither county administrators nor library system administrators have announced the extent of the additional cuts
that may be necessary to bring the cost of county operations in line with county revenues, last week after his regular
monthly meeting with library managers, the library system’s director did pass along for the information of all library
employees a written statement from the County Manager that included these sentences:
“…we’re going to have to make some tough decisions from which no one will be exempt.
As we continue the budget process, we will make every effort to come up with solutions that have as minimal an impact on
employees as possible. However, we are no longer in the position to make guarantees.”
As we wait for further information about how the library will handle any additional cuts that must be made, several
questions naturally arise if the cuts are so substantial that layoffs become unavoidable:
- Will additional cuts to the county's budget, if any, be a percentage of each department’s budget? Different dollar
figures for each county department?
- Are county department administrators coordinating their plans to implement any mandated cuts, or will the methods for saving
dollars differ radically from department to department?
- When will the exact extent of any additional budget cuts, if any, be announced to library staff?
- Who will draw up the plans for any possible layoffs within the library system?
- If layoffs are necessary, which of the options provided in the county’s layoff procedure will be chosen
by the library system? Will that procedure be strictly followed, and how will library employees know they are being strictly
followed?
- Will individuals at risk of being laid off who are nearing retirement be given an opportunity to retire instead? If not,
why not? If so, how long will these employees have to make their decisions?
- How transparent to employees will the layoff process be?
- What will be the effective date of any lay-offs? January 1st? The day the Commissioners approve the 2010 budget (usually
late January)? Sooner? Later?
- Will some county departments – or county administrative units – be exempted from any risk of layoffs? If so, why?
- Will any library branches (including Auburn Avenue), any Central departments, or any library administrative units (such
as the Personnel Office or the Budget Office or the Library Director’s Office) be exempted from any layoff plan? If so, why?
- What cutbacks in library services and/or hours of operation will result from any furthercutbacks in staff?
- What job reassignments will be necessary? Will there be a coordinated plan, or will certain units be combined or
temporarily shut down? Who will manage any combined units, and how will those assignments be made?
- Are furloughs rather than layoffs being considered as money-saving measures? (DeKalb County’s government recently
announced
a one-day furlough for all county employees that is projected to save a million dollars.)
- How and when will any layoff or furlough plan be communicated to library staff?
- How and when will the library-using public learn of any additional budget cuts and their consequences?
We certainly hope any budget-cutting process involving layoffs will be rational and fair, and that that the pain - whatever
its extent - will be borne equitably by all parts of the organization.
November 16th Update: On Monday, November 16th:
- The library system's two Branch Services Administrators met with groups of branch library managers to update them on
what they want managers to communicate to branch employees about the county's budget crisis.
- The County Manager sent an email to all county employees describing how
the Board of Commissioners might implement a $130 million cut in the FY2010 budget when the commissioners meet for a
special budget session this coming Thursday.
- The Library Director announced a special meeting of Agency Managers for Tuesday, November 17th.
November 17th Update: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an
article about the county's budget crisis on the front page of today's edition.
Jury Rejects Library Employee's Claim of Race Discrimination at AFPL
Posted November 3, 2009
Last month a federal jury decided that library employees serving on a job interview team
did not discriminate against a job applicant because of her race when they decided another
applicant was more qualified for the job.
One of the over three dozen unsuccessful applicants (a part-time library employee),
believing that her race had played a role in the interview team's not selecting her for a
2005 job vacancy, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
After the EEOC determined she had probable grounds for a lawsuit, she filed the lawsuit
in 2006. The case went to trial last month after the County turned down a settlement offer
last year, and numerous library administrators and employees were subpoenaed by the defendants'
or the plaintiff's attorneys to testify in the case.
Some of the details of the trial were reported in an
article published late last month in the Fulton County Daily Report.
According to the Report, the case was the first lawsuit alleging race discrimination
at the library since 2004, when a court settlement stiplulated that Fulton County government would pay plaintiffs almost
$17 million due to damages to their careers resulting from a race-based "reorganization"
of the Central Library's staff in 2000..
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