Thursday, January 26, 2012

Budget ax falls in St. Louis County

The budget ax that has been hovering for three months over St. Louis County government has finally come down, on the Parks and Public Works departments.

County Executive Charlie A. Dooley said Wednesday that he was laying off 20 full-time employees in the Parks Department and six in Public Works.

Other cuts will include closing the county's three public swimming pools two weeks earlier this summer.

Along with reductions in maintenance work and in capital purchases and projects, the move is designed to trim about $3.6 million out of the Parks Department.

The cuts rekindle the friction between Dooley, a Democrat, and the Democratic-controlled County Council that broke out last year over the budget.

Council Chairman Mike O'Mara, who played a key role in ending the impasse in December, reacted angrily Wednesday to news of the layoffs.

"Charlie and I had an agreement that there would not be any layoffs this year, and he broke it," O'Mara, D-Florissant, said Wednesday. "His promise was part of my sell (of the budget compromise) to my fellow council members. I don't know what happened since last month, but now I've lost my trust with my council members."

Dooley denied making such a promise.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:30 AM

    Is Dooley either capable of telling the truth or at the very least in touch with reality? If he’s going to do things like this, how do we start a recall petition?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:35 AM

    Maybe you should makes some cuts in your office also, and cut some of your cousins and family memebrs out of jobs.

    ReplyDelete