Kilpatrick calls for 754 layoffs, pay cuts in (Detroit) city budget

[UpInArms]

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm3705_20050412.htm

Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick presented a budget plan to City Council this morning calling for 754 layoffs, renegotiation of city worker health care plans, 10 percent pay cuts for city workers and elimination of bulk trash pickup for large household items from November through March.

Detroit currently picks up such items once a month. Kilpatrick said many cities don't offer such service.

Kilpatrick said the pay cut would be accomplished if employees take 26 days without pay over the budget year. If unions balk at concessions, he said, the city would be forced to lay off more employees.

The layoffs he proposed include 61 in the fire department, but no fire houses would close, he said. They also include the elimination of 47 emergency services service positions, including 38 layoffs.

...more...

[Renew Deal]

1. That's the third large layoff report I have seen in 2 days.

BMC amd someone else too.

[TahitiNut]

2. Kwame continues to show his DLC stripes.

Kiss corporate ass and kick workers in the butt. Just 'nother house n***** doing massah's bidding.

[DetroitDem]

3. Kwame's no saint

The city's here to serve it's citizen not keeping jobs around it doesn't need to make the workforce happy. IMO this needed to done a long, long time ago, but no one had the political balls to do until the shit hit the fan. I'm happy to see consolidation eliminating needless middle management,but definitely not pleased about the potential cuts in fire and EMS

http://www.freep.com/money/business/walsh12e_20050412.htm
When Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick presents his new budget to the Detroit City Council today, he's likely to propose a major overhaul of city government, reducing 42 departments to about 25, and eliminating day-to-day operating subsidies for the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Historical Museums.
...Kilpatrick's reorganization plan also calls for merging a number of city departments, thus reducing the numbers of directors and management-level salaries.


For example, the Department of Public Works, the Public Lighting Department and the Environmental Affairs department would all be folded into a combined Municipal & Environmental Services department. Separate departments for recreation, senior citizens and human services would be rolled into one Community Services department.

[Festivito]

5. What would you have him do?

What?

[1gobluedem]

4. It's unfortunate that jobs will be lost but...

...this has needed to be done for a long, long time. Detroit has something like the third largest city workforce in the country when its population has steadily declined. Right now it has the workforce of a city that has more than 2 million population and Detroit's isn't even one million. The red tape and bureaucracy have stymied any real progress for years; taxes go uncollected, people want to buy and rehabilitate properties and get bogged down in red tape until they get so discouraged they just walk away.

Now they need to reduce the mayor's 'posse' to just a couple of security guards, do away with police drivers for city council members, and get back to a ward system so the council members are actually representing the citizens and neighborhoods instead of their own self interests.

My family was in Detroit for nearly eight generations; it just makes me heartsick to see what's happened. Yes, white flight began it but the Young administration has a lot to answer for in what's happened to a once-great city.