While we understand there are privacy concerns involving personnel issues at town hall, the fact that so many town employees are leaving, either willfully or unwillingly, is cause for concern.
It’s time the mayor and municipal administrator talked about the issue candidly. What’s the plan at town hall? Why spend so much on severances and golden handshakes and disrupt people’s livelihoods? Was there a culture of entitlement at town hall that needed to be addressed? Or is it about personalities, and the political camps created in the 2006 election?
When Huntsville mayor Claude Doughty was first elected, part of his campaign promise was to shakeup, and clean up town hall. That was in 2006. Six years later, and we’re still hearing rumours about shakedowns at the municipality.
What’s worse is our very own councillors, or perhaps just some of them, don’t seem to be in on the plan.
While the town has stated it will save $300,000 annually with the newest wave of terminations, there has been no supporting information presented publicly to prove it.
While it is understood that names cannot be connected to former employees’ termination costs, why not present the hard numbers with names and identifying information blacked out? Transparency is a trait sadly lacking in much of the town’s decision-making when it comes to this issue. Since 2006, there’s been upwards of a 25 per cent staff turnover. That’s a pretty high turnover, considering these are good jobs with benefits.
Put the rumour mills to rest. It’s time we got some answers.
TdV