Otoe County sticks to plan to lay off 7 road workers

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BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star

NEBRASKA CITY — A standing-room-only crowd waited more than two hours Tuesday to hear the motion — reinstate seven road and bridge workers who had been laid off two weeks ago.

Nickola Kreifels, an Otoe County commissioner, made the motion because she wanted the board to consider other ways to save money. But her two fellow commissioners, Dale Haverty and Joy Schroder, sat stoically and silently.

“If there’s no retaliation, there should be a second,” shouted Bill Creek, a retired Nebraska City resident, who, moments earlier, accused Haverty and Schroder of executing a vendetta against the laid-off workers.

Haverty, the commission chairman, then declared the motion had died for lack of a second.

Some of the crowd of about 50 that packed a courtroom in Nebraska City gasped. Others groaned. A few blurted “recall,” while some muttered profanity. Two Otoe County Sheriff’s deputies stood and pointed angry faces toward the door.

After the meeting, Haverty said he refused to reinstate the seven employees because the county can no longer afford them. A budget shortfall forced the decision that will force seven men to find new jobs, including several whom he considers friends.

“We’re in real trouble this year,” said Haverty, who learned Monday he faces a possible recall election over the matter. The layoffs, which take effect Sept. 1, will save the county between $200,000 and $300,000 per year, he contended.

But that estimate is in dispute.

Union officials who represent the laid-off workers said once the cost of hiring private contractors to do the work is figured in, the actual savings to the county is closer to $30,000. That’s just a fraction of an annual budget of about $12 million, said George Forst, vice president of Nebraska Public Employees Local 251.

“We will continue to fight,” he said after the meeting.

The layoffs will reduce the road crew from 21 to 14 workers. John Bebout, a union steward who remains on the crew, said he thinks Tuesday’s action involves bad blood between the union and the county commissioners.

Earlier this year, Bebout said, the board laid off one of the roads employees. An arbitration panel, however, reinstated the employee, saying the layoff was too harsh of a response.

After Tuesday’s hearing, the laid-off workers — three bridge maintenance employees and four gravel truck drivers — got back slaps, hugs and handshakes from relatives and friends.

Lou Wurtele, 42, of Nebraska City, a husband and father of two sons, shook his head when asked what he will do now that he’s lost his bridge maintenance job of 6 ½ years.

“I suppose unemployment and start looking for a job,” he said.

Chris Schneider, 57, of Lincoln, was 27 when he got on the bridge crew. The board’s Aug. 12 decision to eliminate his position caught him and the others by surprise, he said.

“It might have sat a little easier if we would have had a couple more months before we were out of a job,” he said.

Union representatives have challenged the Aug. 12 meeting, saying the board violated the state’s open meetings law. In part, the law requires governmental boards to discuss only personnel and litigation matters in closed session. But the board went into closed session to talk about the layoffs, which represented a budgetary matter that should have been discussed in public, the union contends.

The union filed a complaint with the state attorney general’s office, which is investigating the alleged violation. The board chairman has responded to the investigation by contending the law wasn’t broken, said Otoe County Attorney David Partsch.

It’s possible the attorney general will invalidate the original vote to lay off the workers and require the board to revisit the issue at a future meeting. But such a development would seem to only delay the layoffs, based on Tuesday’s action.

Otoe County’s financial straits are a result of revenue sources failing to keep pace with new budgetary requests. The county plans to raise its property tax asking by 3.5 percent, the maximum allowed by law, said Otoe County Clerk Janene Bennett. Even so, the county will fall about $218,000 short of a balanced budget. Eliminating the roads jobs closes the gap.

While the board hasn’t recommended laying off any other of the county’s 114 employees, it has cut some budget requests in other departments and refused to fill new positions, Haverty said.

What disappointed many of the people who attended Tuesday’s meeting was an unwillingness by the two commissioners to consider other options.

Several people suggested transferring money from the county’s inheritance fund to buy more time, but Haverty rejected that option. The board follows a policy of keeping a minimum balance of $1 million in the fund, he said.

Chris Koslosky of Nebraska City, whose future son-in-law will lose his job, said she and her husband, Mike, had obtained pledges of $26,250 for the county. The figure represented enough to pay a month’s wages to all seven men who will be laid off.

“We realize that a budget needs to be balanced. However, I want to remind the commissioners that this is a community, not a cold-hearted corporation where people are reduced to numbers instead of names,” she said.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.