It would be funny if it weren't so sad.
In August, Lawrence laid off eight firefighters and closed two firehouses to save money and help balance its budget.
Doing so increases the risk to public safety from fire. But city officials said they had little choice. They had to save the money somewhere.
But it turns out the city saved precisely nothing from the move. Those firefighters have been at home collecting their full pay for the last 11 weeks.
It's a prime example of how rules designed to defend public employees make it nearly impossible for a municipality to balance its budget through effective personnel management.
And it also shows how decisions in Lawrence are rarely thought through before actions are taken.
"Definitely, a couple of balls were dropped on this one," Mayor Michael Sullivan told reporter Mark E. Vogler. "The city never capitalized on the savings from the layoffs. We're continuing to pay out money the city doesn't have ... Eight employees are sitting home collecting full pay."
The firefighters have the right to a civil service hearing to determine whether their layoffs are justified. The hearing was held more than a month ago but the civil service hearing officer has yet to release a decision.
Fire Chief Peter Takvorian said the firefighters would rather be working but are forced to stay home due to the legal proceedings.
"These people who are affected don't want to be in this position," Takvorian said. "I don't want the public to think they're preferring this. They'd rather be productive members of the department and back doing their jobs."
That's nice. But didn't Takvorian or Sullivan or anyone else foresee that laying off the firefighters would leave the city paying out weeks of wages for no work? That's money the city just does not have.
Meanwhile, the firefighters may be headed back to work after all. The city has received a $521,000 grant of stimulus funds designed to help communities restore positions eliminated through layoffs. But it's still not clear whether the city can afford to bring the firefighters back without exacerbating the budget deficit.
We'd like to suggest that someone in Lawrence government find out — and soon.
The city has two closed firehouses and eight firefighters are getting paid to do nothing largely because city leaders can't figure out what they're doing.
That's no joke. That's just pathetic.
