LAWRENCE — The city wants to replace half of the employees fired last month in what was then described as a drastic but necessary move to save money.
The eight employees, including Norm Nimmo, the recycling coordinator, Milagro Grullon, a high-profile neighborhood planner and health task force member, and Mary Lou Nichols, a longtime public works supervisor, were among eight employees "involuntarily terminated" by new Mayor William Lantigua on Friday, Jan. 22.
At the time, Lantigua's spokesman said such firings would continue through July "because we have to reduce the budget deficit." The city currently has a $24.5 million budget deficit. Another $15 million revenue shortfall is predicted for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
But three weeks after the firings, with Lantigua's permission, one of the fired workers is back on the job and the city is advertising to refill several others. The official word is the jobs must be filled because they are "grant funded" and if left vacant, the city would lose the money.
In addition to Nimmo, Grullon and Nichols, the others terminated were Judy Perkins, benefits coordinator, Lee Nichols, Council on Aging clerk, Kerrie D'Entremont, tobacco control coordinator, Dora Marco, a personnel department clerk, and Angelica Gill, a clerk in the community development department. Gill has since been rehired.
Nimmo, reached yesterday for comment, said his termination wreaks of politics.
"He probably had a ton of motives, none of which is justified," Nimmo said of Lantigua. "His is a hard mind to read."
Nimmo pointed to his colleagues who were also fired that day despite proven track records of "doing a good job."
"I thought we'd come farther than that. It's just more or less scouring City Hall of good people. It makes no sense to me," he said.
Neither Lantigua nor Leonard Degnan, his chief of staff, were available for comment yesterday.
In a previous interview, Lantigua said he decided to rehire Gill after speaking with her supervisor and learning more about her job performance and responsibilities.
"I am a human being," Lantigua said at the time.
Acting personnel director Frank Bonet, in a Feb. 4 e-mail to the City Council, said the fired workers were "at-will employees."
Bonet said the positions now advertised are "grant-funded positions. If we do not fill those positions that are grant-funded, we risk the possibility of losing the grant and will be unable to provide the service under the grant to our residents."
The grant-funded positions now being advertised are: recycling coordinator, tobacco control program director, neighborhood planner, community development receptionist and program administrator for the senior citizen center, Bonet wrote.
The city is also trying to fill positions that do effect the budget, including the budget and finance director's job, which has been vacant since Mark Andrews left in December. That job pays between $80,000 to $95,000 annually.
Several water meter reader positions are also open and the Council on Aging director's job is also vacant. Former director Bernard Reilly retired in early January.
The city currently has 38 positions on boards and commissions "that we are applying a massive recruitment effort," Bonet also wrote.
Along with the eight employees fired, former city planner Michael Sweeney was issued a layoff notice on Jan. 22. Lantigua previously fired Sweeney, who later received 4 of 9 votes from city councilors to keep his job. However, Sweeney was never allowed to go back to work and was served the layoff notice by a constable.
Marco, who worked in the personnel department, also had a pending harassment complaint against her co-worker Lorenza Ortega, whom she described as Lantigua's "girlfriend." Marco said she was repeatedly threatened by Ortega, who said when her "boyfriend" was elected mayor she would be fired.
Marco filed the harassment complaint in August. To date it remains unresolved.
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