Anderson Water Department lays off five

aleasha.sandley@heraldbulletin

ANDERSON - Five employees were notified Tuesday they would be laid off from the city's water utility as department heads look to cut their budgets to make up for a shortfall next year.

Layoffs include two pipe-fitter helpers, one locator service person and two laborers, Board of Public Works Chairman Greg Graham said.

Two other positions likely will be eliminated, including one worker who resigned last month and the anticipated retirement in the first quarter of 2010 of another employee.

The department had 43 employees before the layoffs, resignation and retirement, Graham said. The city's goal is to maintain services throughout the personnel cuts.

"Obviously, they'll be readjusting the workload, but our goal of course is to continue to provide the best service," he said.

The position eliminations - with layoffs taking effect Jan. 1 - will save about $400,000 in the Water Department's budget, Graham said.

Coupled with statewide property tax caps that left the city with a $4.9 million shortfall in 2010, the Water Department's finances had been in bad shape the last couple years, Graham said. The last rate increase two years ago did not cover any of the costs associated with the department's switch to automatic meters, he said. Before that, the department had not had a rate increase for 11 years.

"We're meeting our expenditures and our monthly expenses," Graham said, noting that the automatic meter leases were stretching the budget too thin. "What we're trying to do here is avoid having to go for a rate increase.

"These layoffs are hard on everybody. We also have a responsibility to the rate payers."

Other layoffs were announced Tuesday in the Parks and Recreation Department, where 15 positions will be cut, some professional and some laborers and part-time workers.

A partial list of cut positions includes the facilities superintendent, beautification manager, community center director, three laborers and two part-time workers. Parks Superintendent Fred Reese's job was not among the positions cut.

Parks and Recreation Board attorney Evan Broderick said Tuesday he would release a full list of cut parks positions by Wednesday morning. When reached by phone Wednesday, Reese would not release the list, and The Herald Bulletin did not receive the list from Broderick on Wednesday.

Reese said an issue had come up in the layoff process and he did not want to release the list before the issue was resolved and he was certain the list was correct. He said the list would be available today.

"We want to make sure we're following the personnel policy and the law," he said.

A phone call to Broderick was not returned Wednesday. The list of jobs cut, presented during a public Park Board meeting Tuesday, is public record, Broderick acknowledged.