The City of Jersey City is “eliminating unnecessary and outdated positions,” including 11 jobs at the Department of Public Works, though those employees were offered continued employment, an official said.
“Pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 11A:8-1, this is to notify all employees that for reasons of economy and efficiency, it is possible you will be laid off or demoted from your permanent or probationary positions,” Business Administrator John Metro wrote today in a letter to the Local 245 union members who work at DPW.
“If your position is subject to layoff, you may have the right to displace employees in other positions. This layoff will be effective at the close of the working day on Friday, June 28, 2024.”
He continued that a copy of the letter is being forwarded to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, since they will ultimately be responsible for determining seniority, displacement, demotions, and/or special reappoint rights of municipal workers.
City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said that all 11 of those employees have opportunities to work elsewhere and this letter is part of a larger initiative to gets rid of positions that are no longer needed.
“To be clear, there is no intent to lay anyone off if the employee chooses to continue to working with the city. The city is being fiscally prudent by consolidating or eliminating unnecessary and outdated positions,” she told HCV in an email.
“Each of the 11 employees have been offered continued employment with the city as was explained emphatically to the unions when the city was fully transparent with the need to reassess and reallocate resources wherever possible. For example, there is no longer a need for five full-time messengers as email is used as the primary tool for communications and document sharing.”
The city has not introduced their budget yet this year, but measures to tighten their belt were expected after they took on $27 million in debt last year, leading to Moody’s, S&P Global, and Fitch downgrading their credit ratings.
The upcoming tax bills for Jersey City homeowners still remains largely up in the air, with the municipal utilities authority (which has proposed a seven percent water rate hike) and the county yet to vote on an annual spending plan.
Meanwhile, the Jersey City Board of Education approved a preliminary $1,035,721,424 budget with a 2 percent tax increase last month, as HCV first reported.