Pocono News Section

Layoffs Coming for Luzerne County Workers

Layoffs Coming for Luzerne County Workers - Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 4:45PM EST

Reported by: Mike Trim
Tuesday, Oct 21, 2008 @ 04:45pm EST
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY- Luzerne County Commissioners are expected to announce worker layoffs on Monday. The commissioners held a special meeting Tuesday, explaining how the county got to this point.

It's all from a huge county budget shortfall. Now, 2.5-million dollars has to be cut in county payroll expenses. That means layoffs are coming. Luzerne County Maryanne Petrilla says, "This is a painful day for me and I'm sure it is for the other commissioners as well. We're not ready to announce a layoff but it's imminent."

Petrilla won't say how many workers lose work. At Tuesday's special commissioners meeting, the red flag was thrown up. Some county row officers are fired up, and feel layoffs shouldn't be the answer. Clerk of Courts Bob Reilly says, "There's 12 judges. I have 6 clerks, are you going to take some of them off? How are we going to cover it? We have a duty as elected officials to make sure that our offices are staffed properly and operate properly."

Commissioners say the shortfalls came in expected revenue money. County land sales in the budget year didn't bring in enough. Also, debt restructuring didn't make up enough ground. County leaders say loss of revenue just couldn't be predicted. Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak said, "All this heresy as to whether or not we knew where we were, or what we could have done in my mind is a lot of smoke and mirrors."

Layoffs are now the short term answer. Union leaders say it's a tough pill to swallow. Local AFSCME representative Paula Schnelly said, "The employees, it's very tense. Just after leaving the meeting right now, going back to the employees, they're all asking what's going to happen and it's hard to not be able to give them an answer."

Big layoffs likely won't come from Luzerne County's prison or 9-1-1 center. Commissioners say they want to keep health care intact for laid off workers. But some taxpayers, like Walter Griffith of Wilkes-Barre say, "If we're going to lay people off from now until January 1st, what's going to bring the people back? Are we going to miraculously find some more money somewhere?"

65 Luzerne County workers were laid off in 2004. This time around, union leaders hope it won't be that much. A list of what workers are eligible for layoffs is supposed to be given to the union by this Friday.