JeffCo sends letters to employees about impending job cuts

Jefferson County employees are wondering about their jobs. The Jefferson County Personnel Board sent out letters Wednesday to more than 600 employees saying that they could be affected by the elimination of 180 positions.

The letters are the first step in a reduction in force (RIF) as the county tries to come to grips with its $40 million shortfall.

"How can you prepare? You are on a job, that may or may not be nixed. You still have to work every day. When are you going to go out and look for a job," Cheryl Hoskins, Treasurer of the Jefferson County Employee Association said.

While the county is eliminating some jobs, employees who lost their jobs already may be called back to work because they could take a lower paying position within their department and bump out someone with less senority.

"With bumping rights, people working could be sent home. People at home could be called back to work," Jefferson County Manager Tony Petelos said.

To add to the county workers uneasiness is the fact the county may make more jobs cuts if state lawmakers fail to come with a solution to the funding crisis.

"The letters are a necessary next step in the reduction of service the county is having to wind down to," County Commissioner Jimmie Stephens said.

"Upper management hasn't been cut. It's on the employees and no group should suffer that for an entire county and then do the job of two or three people," Hoskins said.

County employees have to determine if they want to bump others to keep working and the employees also have the right to appeal to the personnel board.

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