By Kim Posey | KDVR Fox 31
DENVER (KDVR) — After weeks of uncertainty, Denver employees are now finding out if they will be laid off. Mayor Mike Johnston’s office said impacted employees would be notified Monday and Tuesday.
The mayor’s office announced Monday that the city is eliminating 928 positions out of about 11,000, in an effort to deal with a $200 million budget shortfall.
But only 171 of those are layoffs, as another 645 are vacant positions that won’t be filled, and 92 are positions that will be transferred to alternate funding sources.
Alvin Tafoya, the former deputy director of the Financial Empowerment Division, says he was one of the workers laid off. Tafoya said his department was told to work from home today, and he was let go during a virtual meeting at 9 a.m.
“It was very, very short, very cold, three to five minutes,” Tafoya said.
After that, he felt some sensory overload.
“A little stressed for myself, my family, my kids, and honestly for my community, and my employees, because I did get a call from two of them that they got notice that they were being let go as well. So, I can’t even confirm with my boss if the program was cut in part or in whole,” he said.
It is a stressful time, according to Mike Wallin, the president of the AFSCME Local 158, one of the unions that represents city employees.
“Since seniority is no longer a factor in retaining employees, you don’t know who is going to be let go. You don’t know if it’s going to be me, is it going to be you?” he said.
The mayor’s office says nearly 70% of the general fund goes to personnel costs, so eliminating positions was necessary. But Wallin does not agree.
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