DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 3:01 p.m. December 02, 2008
Atlanta to cut 222 jobs, close 22 rec centers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
The city of Atlanta will cut another 222 filled positions and permanently close about two-thirds of its recreation centers to weather an expected revenue shortfall of at least $50 million, Mayor Shirley Franklin announced Tuesday.
Although the mayor said city spending is down by 2 percent since July 1, revenues are down nearly 13 percent. Franklin blamed the drop in revenue on the deepening economic slump.
• Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, $3 million
• Public Works, $2.5 million
• Planning and Commmunity Development, $1 million
• Various support functions, $7.4 million
• Atlanta and Fulton County news
The mayor said the latest cuts will begin during the middle of this month. None of the job cuts will affect police and fire departments.
“We are now cutting into what we believe is the bone,” Franklin told reporters.
This month’s layoffs will be the third round of job cuts this year.
Nearly half of this round of job cuts will be in the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs department, city officials said. The city will keep 11 centers open.
About a dozen centers slated for shutdown are already closed for renovations or other reasons. Among currently open centers being closed under the new announcement are the Central, Dunbar, English Park, City of Refuge, Lang Carson, Oakland and Thomasville rec centers.
The rec centers will still be available for special events, the city said. The city will reevaluate their status before adopting the next budget in June 2009.
The department’s commissioner, Dianne Harnell Cohen, left the mayor’s news conference to talk to her staff about the cuts and how they’ll affect services.
“It is a very, very sad day for us,” Cohen said.
In a later phone interview, she said recreation officials looked at “geographic equity” in deciding which centers to close. No part of the Atlanta, she said, would be left without a recreation center.
Officials didn’t want to close any centers, she said, “but we have no control over what the national economy is.”
In other cost-cutting measures, the mayor said the city will reduce recycling pickups from once a week to once every other week. Franklin will also cut one-fifth of the city’s permitting staff, citing a decline in permitting activity.
City Hall and City Hall East, the current police and fire department headquarters, will be closed to the public on Fridays, starting Dec. 12. Residents who want to pay their water bills at City Hall will still be able to do so.
Tuesday’s cuts, to take effect over the next month, will save the city nearly $14 million, according to documents from Franklin’s staff. The mayor plans to cover the rest of the expected shortfall by cutting the weekly hours and pay of most city workers by 10 percent and taking $12 million from the city’s reserves. Those moves were announced previously. The furloughs will begin later this month for most city agencies.
The mayor reiterated her request for revenue-sharing with the state, which she said could bring the city at least $70 million a year. She noted it’s done in other states, such as Massachusetts.
Franklin and the City Council last month gave state lawmakers a list of legislation the city believes will generate about $12 million a year for Atlanta if approved by the state.
Here is a breakdown of the city’s latest planned cutbacks, by department and amount:
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Comments
By caz1158
Dec 2, 2008 7:08 PM | Link to this
"hearditbefore" - Whatever man,peace.
By Crime Rate
Dec 2, 2008 7:07 PM | Link to this
With all the Rec Centers being shutdown, people are saying the youth crime will go up because the kids are forced to the streets to live a thug life. Parents with children, the ones that are affected by this closures, please inform your child that gun sales are up as well as concealed weapons permits are also on the rise!! You might want to be teach them to be a little leary about the next car the try hijack. Might be their last.
By 80's Futball
Dec 2, 2008 7:03 PM | Link to this
Hey Shawond- The libraries and golf courses you are talking about are not part of the City of Atlanta. It was the City Major, different government and budget.
BTW I live in the City and not N Fulton (or Alpharetta aka FARphretta).
Get the facts right.
By caz1158
Dec 2, 2008 7:01 PM | Link to this
excellent 80's futball!!!!!!!
By hearditbefore
Dec 2, 2008 7:01 PM | Link to this
Caz1158:
You and your racist buddies need to do just that! all over the world!
We're tuned to your political bullsh^t!
Besides you're not the moderator...sucker!
By 80's Futball
Dec 2, 2008 6:55 PM | Link to this
What a political play.....they could have cut the fat from jobs that didn't have a front-line effect like this.
Point #1: How about cutting out the bureaucrats?
Point #2: Gwinnett and Cobb have higher test scores at less the cost than APS. I don't mind my tax dollars going to the schools as long as they are effective.
Point #3. Did we really have to spend all this $$ on wireless H2O meter readers? We are droping big $$$ to redo the water systems. We could have waited to upgrade the meters once we paid for the major infrastructure.
Point #4. They are cutting job for service that we already pay a special "trash" collection tax.
Be smart about the dollars you spend.
By Bill Campbell
Dec 2, 2008 6:54 PM | Link to this
Why did we spend tens of thousands...if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to change street names/signs throughout Atlanta? Ashby to Joseph E Lowery. Simpson to Joseph E Boone. Bankhead to Donald Lee Hollowell. Who's brilliant idea was this? Someone in Shirley's family must be in the street sign making business.
By caz1158
Dec 2, 2008 6:50 PM | Link to this
Give it a rest "hearditbefore". It's always the whitemans fault. Good God get over it. Life is what you make of it. For the most part no one gives you,me,or anyone else a thing. You have to go out and earn it!! Not wait for someone or for some the Government to it to you!! No one owes you a thing. Prosperity comes from within not a handout!! If we teach our young to strive to be something as opposed to relying on others,just maybe we might change the attitudes. But yours my friend I just don't know! SAD
By caz1158
Dec 2, 2008 6:41 PM | Link to this
ThankYOU Atlanta City Council!!!!! I'm White and I live in the citty of Atlanta and I don't need to be paying more taxes!!! My property taxes are high enough,thankyou very much. If we as citizens would quit electing fools in places of power! We need to elect people with some sense of business not political background. We get what we vote in. Wake up people!!!!!!
By tony
Dec 2, 2008 6:39 PM | Link to this
thanks bush. thanks high quality auto industry. can u atl thugs come to cobb to fight the mexician thugs
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