So spoke a cornered Nikki Whitty to incoming county commissioner, Bob Main, this morning as Whitty was surrounded by former county road workers. Speaking with a dozen road workers questioning her vote to terminate 22 of 39 road maintenance employees, Whitty, advised that Bob Main had specifically requested not to be made a liaison to either his previous assessor’s office or the road department. Main denied having declined the road department assignment when Whitty confronted him in the hallway outside the commissioners’ offices.
“Bob! You’re going to have to learn,” snapped a clearly annoyed Whitty as she marched back to her office and accused Main of ‘changing his tune’ to anxious road department personnel.
One has to ask what it is Bob is supposed to learn. Not to disagree with her in public? To back her up no matter what? Only answer questions the way she wants him too?
The occasion was the most highly attended swearing in ceremony for elected officials that County Clerk, Terri Turi can remember. The ceremony was originally planned for the county chambers but was soon overwhelmed by the numbers and moved to the jury room upstairs where it was still filled to capacity.
Bob Main’s swearing in was met by a huge round of applause especially by the dozen or so road workers so devastated by the 11th hour layoffs on New Year’s Eve. Road workers had hoped to speak with both Stufflebean and Whitty and ask to see a road master plan or the analysis Stufflebean referred showing the 600+ miles of county road can be maintained.
Main had been shut out of the deliberations and the executive session where the board voted to terminate 60% of the road crew. Today, Whitty claimed that she was responsible for holding the vote before Main took office so as to spare him this turmoil. Whitty further claimed that Stufflebean, self appointed interim Road Master had the authority to terminate the employees without board approval but was doing the board a service by keeping them informed.
The actual savings to the county from paying unemployment benefits vs regular salaries between the termination date of January 20 and the labor contract of July 1 is less than $300,000, however, the tax payer will not likely see any savings as people will have to be hired or private contracting firms brought in to do the work the road crew would normally be doing.
Obviously there is much more to report and I am going to organize what I have learned the last few days and report on this further as will The Sentinel. It should be noted that almost a dozen of the former employees reside in or near Coquille… the local unemployment rate just went up.
The recent decision of the County Board of Commissioners to layoff 22 employees of that department concerns me very much. I worked for the County Road Department for 33 years, the last seven years as the County Roadmaster before resigning.
I wonder how much thought went into this decision as to the effects it will have on public safety and maintenance on our county roads. The remaining 17 employees cannot effectively maintain the 500 miles of aging county road. It was difficult to maintain our roads the way we should when we had 60 employees. Many of these roads do not meet today’s county road standards and were constructed only for a certain need, which poses many maintenance problems for the county.
There’s always room for improvement in any organization. While Roadmaster I had to make decisions that were unpopular to the public and employees of the Road Department, but were necessary to keep pace with the current political and economic times. I enjoyed working for the public and valued our employees and the service they provided, knowing we could respond quickly to most emergency situations involving county roads and we did. Gutting the Highway Department will change this.
Of the 17 jobs remaining, 3 are management positions, 2 leadmen and 1 bridge inspector. This leaves 11 remaining positions to perform routine road maintenance. Vacation, sick leave, family leave and training will reduce that number even lower. Of the 22 employees laid off, the county will lose all of their experienced grader operators, all of the paving crew and the crusher crew. Most crews require 3 to 6 employees to work safely on public roads, more if trucks are needed. Do the math. Very little work will be accomplished unless outside help is hired. Has this extra cost been considered and what will it cost the county?
Any of these jobs require experience and training over a period of time. Who’s going to train the remaining employees to do these jobs and what quality of work will be done? I see many problems with this decision, too many to address here in this forum. Unless I’m totally ignorant or there is a hidden agenda that’s not being fully disclosed, it doesn’t compute.
It seems that the elected officials who made this decision, have chosen to disregard public safety and the impacts it will have to our county road system. It also seems that there is a lack of understanding on the many issues involving the county road department and its importance to the citizens of Coos County. The county road system is more than just a budget figure, the public should have some input on such a major decision that impacts them so directly.
MY HAT IS OFF TO YOU ALL !!!
It’s hard to speak to power, but harder still to do nothing. WE THE PEOPLE tell them what we want, not the other way around ! This county is finally being made to answer to US !!
I salute those of you willing to stand up and demand answers.
Your jobs and your families deserve nothing less.