677 Jobs Open after Layoffs!
Although laying off more than 900 employees over two days, Dallas City Hall could have more than 670 open jobs in next year’s budget, with many of those certain to offer to people who lost positions.
City Manager Mary Suhm has said she hoped to rehire up to 500 of the people who were laid off Thursday and Friday.
Possibility is that some jobs, particularly in high-tech areas, are to go to new employees.
As of late Friday, 168 jobs in fee-funded departments and 122 other jobs funded with grants were listed as available in next year’s budget.
Another 387 vacant jobs were available in departments supported by the city’s general fund, which receives its revenue directly from city taxes.
The city was forced to trim its workforce to balance a budget deficit that had immensely swollen to $190 million out of an operating budget of $1.9 billion.
And that gap is expected to be filled by layoffs and service cuts.
Suhm said that she expects that by Oct. 1, when a new budget takes effect, the city’s workforce of some 13,000 will be forcibly trimmed by 1,400 positions only through layoffs, attrition and the elimination of vacant jobs.
By Friday morning, city workers who received layoff notifications were enunciating the process of applying for available jobs.
By 4:30 p.m., nearly 160 had already handed in applications.
Karen Veloz got notice late Wednesday that her evening-shift job as a police report representative had been eliminated.
“It was devastating. I still can’t believe it. I keep thinking I’m dreaming and I’m going to wake up and it isn’t going to be real,” she said.
A 19-year city employee, Veloz, 53, works out of City Hall for the police, collecting report data, attending calls and generally assisting officers.
She went to the city’s civil service office, first thing Friday morning, where she spent several hours filling out an application for a new job.
She needs another job to stay eligible for her pension and to keep health benefits she needs for an upcoming hip replacement surgery, she said.
“It’s harder when you’re older to find jobs,” she said.
She got no sign of whether she will be among those who get rehired.
“It’s all up in the air now. I just wait for someone for to call me,” she said.
Many others took benefit of a Web site set up for employees who were laid off.
The Web site directed employees to an online application for a new job. It also provided information regarding résumé writing, job training and counselling.
Laid-off employees will remain in their current jobs until Oct. 1. Some jobs that were cut could be restored to the budget by the City Council, although the expectation is to be a small number.
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