Black announces layoffs
Three city hall employees are let go due to budgetary considerations; Black states that no further layoffs are being considered
-- John Patten, 04/14/07
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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City Manager Marty Black announced on Thursday that he had given pink slips to three city hall employees. Gone from the city's payroll are city staffer Ed Hoefert, Purchasing Department head Larry Miller, and Dan Hoffman who worked in Administrative Services. According to Black, all three were offered "... the option of a severance package that is tied to their years of service to the organization."

"As we had previously reviewed, in addition to the several vacant positions de-authorized and the other budget reductions approved in March by City Council as a means of meeting stated policy objectives to carefully manage city financial resources, several existing employee layoffs have been under careful review and consideration by me, Bob Anderson, Mary Holcombe, and Jeff Snyder. We considered priorities for those departments and individuals providing direct service to the community, opportunities for greater efficiencies as a result of voter-approved changes to the charter, and for anticipated workload changes as a result of reductions to our capital and operating program expenses, all consistent with the city's organizational and policy objectives."
-- Marty Black, letter to council and all department heads, 04/12/07

Black wrote that the decision process as to who to let go had been difficult and that no further layoffs were likely: "These have been difficult decisions for all of us to make over the course of our review of organizational needs during the past several weeks and we believe that no further lay offs will be necessary to consider for the foreseeable future."

Black's letter did not say whether any of the three would be eligible to apply for other open positions within the city either now or in the future.

John Patten is the editor and publisher of Venice Florida! dot com and had previously worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.