Mayor Cohen cuts 5 positions
Enacts Hiring Freeze as well
Annapolis Mayor Josh Cohen (D)
In a press release this afternoon Mayor Cohen announced the elimination of five(5) positions within City Hall. They are as follows:
Chief Information Officer
Elections Administrator
Special Assistant to the Mayor
Executive Office Assistant
General Clerical Position (was a temporary position)
In addition to the elimination of these positions, a hiring freeze has been announced. The hiring freeze is City wide with the only exceptions being Police and Fire Personnel and these will be examined on a case by case basis. The elimination of these five positions and the instituting of a hiring freeze is a good start for the new Administration, however, let’s all keep our eyes on the ball, there are still a lot more cuts/consolidations that need to be made at City Hall.
I commend the Mayor on his timely decision, as eliminating positions is never easy but in this case very necessary. As stated above, there are more cuts and consolidations that need to be made, especially in light of the new positions created and the looming structural deficit that hangs over this fiscal years budget as well as those in the forseeable future. I am also deeply concerned by the Mayors decision to re-appoint Alderwoman Classie G. Hoyle to the Finance Committee and reportedly make anyone other Council Member wishing to serve on this key committee promise to vote for her as Chair. This is at best rewarding and condoning bad decision making over the past 3+ years since he left the position; but more realistically paying back a political favor at the Peoples expense. Not good!
It is important that each of us keep an eye on the initial decisions being made at City Hall, however, we also must be mindful that analyzing every decision individually is somewhat short sighted; let’s see what additional changes the first 30 days bring, and then the first 100 days of this Administration. I think this will give us all a much clearer picture of the direction of the new Administration.
The two biggie positions are vacant. It seems like he terminated three clerks. Yet he still needs to address the $145K for Doug Smith, the $92K for Phill McGowan, the $75K for Gail Smith, the $58K for the grant woman, and any increases that these new positions may have incurred.