The showdown is set at tonight’s City Council meeting and again
we urge City Manager Dale Shaddox and council members to try to
find a better way to save money than by laying off 36 city
workers.
The plan also still calls for axing department heads Bill Card
(Community Development Director), Barbara Mulholland (Finance
Department) and Bill Garringer (Fire Chief).
The showdown is set at tonight’s City Council meeting and again we urge City Manager Dale Shaddox and council members to try to find a better way to save money than by laying off 36 city workers.
The plan also still calls for axing department heads Bill Card (Community Development Director), Barbara Mulholland (Finance Department) and Bill Garringer (Fire Chief).
It’s true that Hollister is facing serious money problems and the forecast amid a state economy meltdown is a gloomy one.
But chopping off department heads, especially the fire chief, is a desperate and dangerous move.
To make Garringer’s potential departure even more ludicrous is that the City Council just passed plans to build a second fire station.
The city wants to double its firefighting capability operations and do it without a chief, especially one of Garringer’s experience and expertise?
It doesn’t make sense, despite the quick money savings from cutting a well-deserved salary.
The police department is also on the hit list and this is another area that should be spared. Gangs, drugs and serious traffic violations are on the rise and the City Council is going to cut back on public safety resources?
Not so fast, please.
Shaddox and the City Council should take a collective deep breath, step back and at least delay this drastic move until other alternatives can be studied. There isn’t a lot of time to act, but it might take that much more time and energy down the road to fix a hasty and ill-fated attempt.
Certainly, there have been good and innovative solutions to similar financial problems in cities of all sizes across California.
And again we have to point out the sizable amount of money the city has owed to it and has yet to collect, San Benito Foods’ hefty sewer bill being an obvious example.
City workers will not go down without another show of protest and support tonight.
There might be some job cuts that are necessary, but not this extreme.
Let’s hope calm and clear heads prevail and the City Council gets back on a more sensible path to help ease the city’s fiscal crisis.
