Backing off a proposal to close the Fallston Library branch, Harford Library Director Audra Caplan announced yesterday that budget cuts would instead be felt across the system in the form of reduced hours of operation, cuts in materials and services, and job losses. The change in plans was to be formally approved by the Library Board of Trustees last night along with the FY10 budget, following a public hearing at 6 p.m. at Fallston High School.
Library Director Caplan said the move to keep Fallston open was in response to an “outpouring…from residents from all areas of the county”. She said “the message was clear” that cuts should be absorbed across the system in order to leave the doors open at all 11 branches.
The $1.6 million in cutbacks will be effective July 1. They are expected to include:
(Bel Air, MD) – - The Harford County Department of Human
Resources recently notified County government employees which work days will be used as unpaid furlough days. Five furlough days were submitted as a part of the FY2010 budget to offset local government funding cuts imposed by the State of Maryland.
County offices will be closed on the following days which have
been selected as unpaid furlough days:
- Friday, July 24, 2009
- Friday, September 4, 2009
- Monday, October 12, 2009
- Thursday, December 24, 2009, and
- Monday, April 5, 2010.
Employees who work at 24/7 water and waste water operations
or the personnel Emergency Operations Center will not follow the
same schedule as other employees and are being required to exhaust
their furlough days in lieu of other leave throughout the fiscal year.
Along with all County government offices, Harford County’s
five senior centers, its Parks and Recreation Centers, and Harford
Transit Bus Service will ...Continue Reading
By implementing system-wide layoffs, furloughs and salary reductions, slashing the materials budget by nearly 20%, and closing all branches of the Harford County Public Library system on Sundays, the Fallston Branch has been saved and will remain open.
The decision and recommendations of the Library Board of Trustees were announced during a Wednesday afternoon press conference.
“The Board of Trustees has removed the closure of a branch, specifically Fallston, from the budget reduction proposal,” the press release states.
A public hearing on the budget proposal will proceed as planned on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. at Fallston High School.
Here is the full press release:
Library Budget Reductions
The Harford County Public Library held a press conference at 3pm today at the Bel Air Branch to announce the Library Board of Trustees’ recommendations for the FY10 budget reductions and the impact these reductions will have on services throughout the county.
Harford County Director of Human Resources Scott Gibson has spent the past few days notifying 34 administration employees that they would be let go. The action was the Craig Administration’s response to a round of budget cuts enacted by the Harford County Council to support a cut to the real estate tax rate. The tax cut is estimated to be worth about $54 on a $300,000 home.
The Dagger has been provided with a list of departments and positions where employees were either laid off or terminated, as indicated by the column headings on the chart below. The column marked “other” provides supplemental information which identifies vacancies that have been frozen and also notes transfers of so-called classified employees. According to Gibson, classified employees are required by the terms of their contract to be given preference over non-standard, temporary employees. So classified employees were sometimes transferred rather than laid ...Continue Reading
In a prepared statement read Thursday afternoon, County Executive David Craig assured the residents of Harford County, employees of the county, and the 34 workers who have lost, or will soon lose, their jobs that “we will get through this.”
In announcing that 34 employees have or will be terminated by the end of the week, Craig hinted there could be even more layoffs from outside agencies – including the library system, health department, and State’s Attorney’s Office.
Craig also warned that the budget cuts would affect more than just those who lost their jobs.
“Others will be more subtle – a delay in getting a permit, a slower response to a hazmat call, a library computer that cannot be accessed, a trail that will not be monitored, a longer trip to drop off recycling, a jury trial delayed, a playground that will not be updated,” he said.
In a press conference Thursday afternoon, County Executive David Craig announced the county would be terminating the positions of at least 34 employees and further reducing existing services in order to meet the latest round of budget cuts.
The cuts are supposedly coming department by department, starting with several today and continuing with the balance tomorrow.
Check back with The Dagger for details as they become available.
Here is the official county release:
County Executive Announces Additional Budget Cuts for FY 2010
Furloughs and Layoffs to be Implemented
(Bel Air, MD) – - Harford County Executive David R. Craig has announced the final decisions with respect to budget cuts the Administration was required to make following adoption of the FY 2010 budget by the Harford County Council late last month. The additional budget cuts from the Harford County Council totaling more than $5 million become effective July 1.
Harford County Executive David Craig will announce layoffs and cuts to services during a 2 p.m. press conference Thursday, June 18, according to the county executive’s Chief of Staff Aaron Tomarchio. Tomarchio said the reductions are in response to the additional 5% cut in operating funds enacted by the Harford County Council on May 29th.
The cuts applied to all departments and agencies except public safety and education, in order to support a decrease in the real estate tax rate. Those cuts were later signed into law by Craig and further reduced the county executive’s proposed operating budget which already included reductions over FY09 and 5 furlough days for some county employees.
Announcing what he called the “leanest and most conservative budget ever that the county council will see,” Harford County Executive David R. Craig released his proposed FY10 budget in Bel Air Tuesday afternoon. The total proposed budget is down over 8% from the current fiscal year to $811,556,090. The proposed Operating Budget is down $37.8 million, including a $22.9 million reduction in the General Fund. The proposed Capital budget is down $36.7 million compared with FY09.
Craig said he developed the budget with “everything on the table” and that “raising revenues was not an option.” No new taxes and no increases in fees are included in the proposal.
In preparation for presenting the proposed 2010 fiscal budget to the County Council, County Executive David Craig has recently sent a letter to county employees – foretelling the impact of the budget on their jobs and, presumably, softening the blow of an announced five-day furlough, spending uniform allowances, and adjusting work schedules to decrease overtime pay.
These likely unpopular changes were explained as being necessary to prevent layoffs, something other counties in Maryland are beginning to resort to.
