HARTFORD — About 40 salaried city employees received layoff notices Wednesday, confirmed City Spokesman Brett Broesder.
The Hartford city employees can keep their benefits through the end of June, Broesder said.
The employees were spread across different areas in the city, they weren’t all from the same department. Also, there will be an elimination of an additional 50 or more positions through not filling vacancies. Here’s the breakdown of which departments had layoffs on Wednesday:
- Corporation Counsel: 5
- Office of Communications and New Media: 3
- Metro Hartford Innovation Services: 1
- Finance: 7
- Human Resources: 1
- Department of Families, Children, Youth and Recreation: 3
- Police: 7
- Public Works: 7
- Development Services: 2
- Health and Human Resources: 4
FOX 61 has also learned that in addition to the seven layoffs in the Police Department, there will be the elimination of 25 non-uniformed positions, and 18 vacant positions won’t be filled.
Last month, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin unveiled his plans for the city’s $557.2 million balanced budget, which erases the $48.5 million budget deficit. Mayor Bronin blamed the gap, in part, on one-time savings measures and underestimated costs, such as overtime for police and fire departments.
Bronin said he is committed to not raising the mill rate for the city because he fears that’ll drive taxpayers, and revenue, away. He proposes saving $15.5 million by eliminating 100 positions. Some of those will be through vacancies and attrition, but about 42 people will be laid off.
Mayor Bronin also proposed “drastic” cuts in funding for community-based organizations, which includes a $200,000 loss by the Greater Hartford Arts Council.
On Wednesday, Bronin released the following statement:
“Of the difficult decisions that need to be made to deal with our budget crisis, the toughest by far is the decision to eliminate a hardworking employee’s job. Facing a budget gap of$48.5 million, we have no choice but to reduce our workforce, including at least forty layoffs. A majority of the employees who are being laid off will receive notification today. We have tried hard to minimize the number of layoffs, and I hope that labor negotiations will allow us to avoid eliminating still more positions in the weeks and months ahead.”
