Layoff

8/13/09

On 10/27/08, the city approved reducing consultant use to save the City of Montrose of $15,000. This reduction will cause a staff vacancy for the EDA. The city promoted an employee to fill the position as EDA and Planning and Zoning Coordinator. They said that growth that the city has experienced during the past several years has created a need for clerical support in the Public Work Department and they had another employee fill this position.

The City of Montrose said that these changes created a need to hire a receptionist for 20 hours a week, without benefits at a recommended wage of $10.00 per hour. This would amount to about $10,000 a year in wages.

At the 12/1/08 Truth in Taxation hearing, members of the public expressed disapproval of creating this new position due to the economic climate.

Now, not even a year later, the Personnel committee recommending eliminating this position saying it will save the city $20k in 2010. They say the Local Government Aid reduction has forced the City of Montrose to look for ways to reduce expenses. They also mention a reduction in building permits however this should have been evident at the time of the proposed hiring. Maybe this employee finished their task of scanning the property folders into the document imaging system?

We have two members of the City of Montrose and who are also members of the Personnel committee that I feel are overpayed and who could have reduced their own pay to provide an opportunity for this gracious employee to keep their job.

The City Administrator who made $90,000 in 2008 + about $23,500 in benefits, whereas the average pay for a comparable administrator in similar sized cities is around $60k. The Mayor is on track to make almost $12,000 this year, however the average mayor pay is about $4,500 for similar sized cities.

The council did approve tonight to layoff this employee.