March 28, 2024
Annapolis, US 48 F

Update On Cohen’s Ax

Mayor Sort Of Clarifies Cuts

The Mayor’s Office just released an update to the press release of yesterday.  Today, it indicates that there were six positions eliminated. They also eliminated an Assistant Public Information Officer.

Cohen’s office is now claiming that the only two vacant positions were the Chief Information Officer and the Special Assistant To The Mayor. Yesterday we were told the Elections Administrator position was vacant, but apparently this person was moved to a different department. So, the person is still there, but the old position is gone.

However, it is still unknown the exact impact these cuts will have when you calculate the cost of the new positions created last week and the salaries.

It seems there may be a shell game going on here.

shell-game-animated

Cohen’s full release after the jump.

Mayor Announces First Round of Personnel Cuts

Annapolis, MD (12-17-09) Following through on his campaign pledge to make government more efficient and effective by eliminating positions and consolidating functions, Mayor Joshua J. Cohen announced that he has eliminated six positions to offset the cost of the new positions he announced last week. Three of the positions he has eliminated are in the Mayor’s Office.

Within the Mayor’s office, Mr. Cohen has cut the full-time positions of executive office associate and special assistant to the mayor as well as a temporary general clerical position. Of those three positions, the lone vacancy was the special assistant to the mayor. Elsewhere, the mayor is eliminating the full-time positions of chief information officer and elections administrator as well as the assistant public information officer. Only the CIO position was vacant.

“It was clear to me that we needed to restructure the Mayor’s office in order to put more emphasis on effective delivery of services and less emphasis on administrative functions,” Cohen said. “We are heading into the most difficult city budget in a generation. As I committed during the campaign, I would lead by example and eliminate and consolidate positions starting in the Mayor’s office.”

As part of the budget preparation process, Mayor Cohen has also instructed his department heads to identify positions in their departments for elimination or consolidation.

This move marks the latest in Mayor Cohen’s multi-step process to make city government more efficient, effective and transparent. Last week, he created a task force to reduce overtime expenditures. Yesterday, he announced a citywide hiring freeze with the exception of police and fire personnel. Today’s announcement marks the first round of positions to be eliminated. Next month, the Idea Team will present further recommendations for eliminating and consolidating positions.

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