Paul Bass File Photo
Economic development officer Richard Yao (pictured), who joined City Hall in 2008, was one of 82 city workers let go Thursday as the mayor sought to close a $5.5 million budget gap this fiscal year.
The mayor cut 96 positions Thursday, 82 of which were filled.
The Independent obtained a list Friday afternoon of the names of the affected workers. (City Hall had not yet answered a Freedom of Information Request for the information.)
Click here to read the list, which names the 33 Board of Ed and 49 city workers who lost their jobs.
After subtracting severance pay and medical benefits, the city will save $478,681 in the rest of fiscal year by cutting the city-side positions, and $1.6 million annually, according to City Hall spokesman Adam Joseph.
Cutting the filled positions in the Board of Education will save $1.3 million annually, he said.
The list includes longtime workers like public works’ John Cox and some more recent hires like Yao, who brought energy and fresh ideas into the city’s development wing, like an apple-themed event designed to lure an Apple store to town.
For Yao and some others on the list, it wasn’t the first time they’d been laid off.
Whether the workers stay jobless will depend on the so-called bumping process, whereby laid-off workers with more seniority can “bump” less senior workers out of similar jobs.
It’s not clear yet how many of the laid-off workers have bumping rights.
AFSCME Local 3144 President Cherlyn Poindexter, whose management union lost 15 workers, said she is still examining the layoffs case by case.
She said she’ll get a seniority list to make sure the city did the layoffs correctly, meaning that they laid off the least senior person in each job position. Then she’ll get a list of vacant positions and see if any of the laid-off members qualify for those jobs.
“I have to look at vacant positions, I have to look at seniority, and I have to make a case for each person,” Poindexter said. “I’m in the process of doing that as we speak.”