3 Commerce employees laid off; more job cuts expected

Berry quickly stressed that the employees who were terminated are in no way at fault.

“This had nothing to do with the way they do their jobs, and I don’t want anybody in the community to think that,” he said. Responding to a question about the reaction of the three, he added, “As I would have been or you would have, they were devastated. The natural question was ‘What have I done?’ The answer to that was ‘nothing.’ They were not responsible for this happening.”

Commerce has watched its fiscal condition erode since the Great Recession began, starting with the closure of Louisiana Pacific’s oriented strand board plant in Center, which was its largest utility customer. This year, after the council passed its budget, it took what Berry called a “one-two” hit — a six-percent reduction in the value of its tax digest and the $240,000 per year reduction in income, starting Jan. 1, from LOST.

“As city manager, be it interim, I can’t sit here and ask them (the city council) to pass everything on to the citizens,” he said. As for the decision to lay off the three employees, Berry said he advised the city council of the action, but did not ask for its approval.

“It’s my decision totally,” he said.

Berry said the work done by those laid off will be incorporated within the organization. For example, the Public Works Department will take over maintenance of the city’s recreation fields, and a call center will cover the late-night dispatching, 98 percent of which is for utility departments.

“It will be difficult,” he acknowledged, “but when the ox is in the ditch, you have to do some things.”

The cuts are expected to save the city $150,000 a year. The employees were given a severance package that included a week and a half of pay for every year they’d been with the city — up to six months of pay; and reimbursement for their COBRA (insurance) costs “for a specific period of time.”

Berry said he is looking over all city operations with the idea of creating more “efficiencies.”

“I’ve got a lot of experience at this,” he said. He will be looking to see “if there is a function we can have an existing crew handle or internally if there are functions we can do without.”

Berry remained complimentary about the city staff.

“It’s one of the best places I’ve been,” he said. “Whoever comes in here (as the new city manager) will get a good organization. There’s nothing that is beyond the scope of this organization.”

That said, Berry also noted that the financial situation “is as bad as any place I’ve been… there’s not any low-hanging fruit, so what you have to do is more drastic.”

Under the city charter, virtually all hiring and firing is the province of the city manager.

“The council doesn’t have any say,” Berry pointed out. “The only thing they can do is run me off.”

The layoffs were not a total surprise. Several staff members related that Berry had warned employees that there would be cuts.