Update: As we noted earlier this morning, according to a phone call from a source inside the building, today Cuyahoga County handed out pink slips to employees in the fiscal office. Around noon, County Executive Ed FitzGerald’s office confirmed that 33 employees have been let got.
This afternoon FitzGerald took a couple minutes to address questions from the press. FitzGerald flat out dismissed the suggestion that he was indiscriminately walking the administration halls with an ax, jonesing for fresh county employee blood( at least two of the questions thrown at FitzGerald dramatically contained the word “ax”). The job eliminations were part of an ongoing effort to squeeze out redundancies under the new county organization.
The eliminated positions all came from the fiscal office, which corrals together the former recorder, treasurer, and auditor staffs. None of the layoffs were for cause. The employees were all non-union and included some supervisors. Together the layoffs represented a net saving of $1.7 million. And yeah, this being Cuyahoga County government, someone was related to somebody: according to the Plain Dealer, former county Sheriff Gerald McFaul’s daughter, Colleen McFaul Vincelli, and Parma Mayor Dean DePiero’s sister Lisa were among the employees let go.
FitzGerald said there would be more staff reductions and both pay decreases and increases in the fiscal office before the end of the year as the evening-out process closes down.
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Ed FitzGerald is laying off workers at the Cuyahoga County auditor’s office today, according to a tip this morning from an auditor’s office employee. The folks in charge of giving the pink slips are actually there now, the tipster says.
This article appears in Nov 2-8, 2011.
very sad to see anyone laid off
Before Fitzgerald starts laying off more people, he needs to do his job and collect some of the $600 MILLION in delinquent property taxes that are owed in Cuyahoga County! I’m sick of seeing employees lose their jobs, while irresponsible homeowners and business owners get away with not paying their property taxes. It’s not fair to the rest of us who do the right thing; and it’s certainly not fair to county employees who are being laid off. Do your job, Fitzgerald!
“Irresponsible homeowners and business owners”, ever think those “irresponsible” people may have been laid off themselves and cannot afford thier taxes let alone food on the table?
Try casting fewer dispersions about and try to see the reality that our government is severely bloated and these layoffs should have happened long ago, unfortunately. Fitz needs to get himself into the Clerk of Courts office next and cull that 300+ herd quickly.