DeKalb County lays off supervisors

A manager in DeKalb County’s development department said he was among a half dozen supervisory employees to be laid off Tuesday.

Gary Englebert, the county’s chief building inspector, said he was summoned to a private meeting where he was told that he no longer had a job. He said five other officials in the department told him they were given the same message at meetings that started at 8:30 a.m.

“They laid me off,” Englebert said. “So far it’s six that I’m aware of.”

The department is on track to spend twice its anticipated revenue of $4 million this year. Officials were planning to layoff as many as 90 employees until county CEO Burrell Ellis intervened. He has floated several ideas to reduce the number of lost jobs, including a tax increase and furloughs.

Key county commissioners last week sent emails opposing a tax increase.

Ellis spokeswoman Shelia Edwards said Tuesday that she was unaware of any layoffs in the development department.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said, when asked if there were any. She added that “there will probably be something going on this week.”

The department’s pay period ends Friday, and Edwards explained that postponing a layoff decision beyond that date would force a larger staff reduction since spending would continue at a rate higher than the budget can support.

Edwards said “everybody’s been hunkered down trying to find some solutions” to the department’s budget problems.

Englebert said top management should have known in January that development inspections had dropped off with the decline of the economy. They waited so long to take action that the department is in a crisis, he said. The 90 people officials were considering firing would have left the department with a skeletal crew of fewer than 20.

“You can see the downward trend,” he said, “and they’ve known it for quite some time.”