By a vote of 6 to 4, a joint legislative committee has approved layoffs of sixteen employees at the Department of Environmental Services.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman has more.
DES Commissioner Michael Nolin told the joint Legislative Fiscal Committee that the layoffs would save the state 2.2 million dollars.
At the same time, he assured the committee that there would be no harm to department functions.
317 we will not cause a reduction in services with what we’re doing, a reduction in grant aid to local communities, or increase in fees. Simply what we’re trying to do is continue with a program implementing best management practices to provide the citizens of this state an agency that is responsive to their needs and is efficient …01 355
Nolin also assured the committee that the Volunteer Lakes Assessment Program, or V-LAP, would continue.
The program overseas the protection of the state’s lakes for invasive species.
Nolin said he would transfer another employee to coordinate the program.
Department officials plan to make several other transfers to cover vacancies made by the layoffs.
Paul Carlson of New Hampshire Rivers Council says his group worries all the transfers will add up to less services for the state’s rivers.
07 57 and notwithstanding the comments of the commissioner and the administrators, it seems to me this is a shell game. They’re moving positions around filling the vacancies of the layoffs with other people in the dept which assumes there’s waste in the department already and people can come up magically with time to do the work that these other people do now. 07 127
DES officials say much of the extra work will be absorbed by remaining employees.
Officials say this assumption of duty will reach to the highest levels of the department.
But a spokesman for the union representing DES workers says the assumption of duties can lead to work overload.
Sheila Heath is a laboratory scientist, and is also the president of State Employees Association Chapter 50.
What concerns me is people will be working unpaid overtime in order to try to get as much as the function done. That’s what I think will be the end result of that and that concerns me, that people aren’t going to be paid for the work they’re doing. 14 29
Heath says the extra work and multiple duties may also result in things just not getting done.
House Democratic leader Peter Burling also predicts the layoffs will do more harm than DES officials have admitted.
09 31 the cuts that are being made in des will appear in delays, the denial of services to people who need them for good water, and for sewage treatment. Municipalities will be forced to either wait or in many cases, supply their own services. 09 52
While some lawmakers found fault with DES’s cost cutting plan, the Joint Legislative Fiscal committee gave the agency the go ahead for the layoffs.
As a result, 16 workers lose their jobs today.
