The Mayor and the hiring freeze

Some back facts: In an April CC meeting the Mayor in her final memo to the Council about the budget, wrote this:



The City has implemented a hiring freeze, which began on March 18th which will continue through FY21. Only positions that directly impact public safety or public health will be considered for hire.

For those who don't follow your government meetings on Zoom. Last week, the Economic Development Committee, chaired by Mike Cannon, had a meeting with the new guy Kevin Shea from the Economic Development group, the Mayor and the COO. Over the past few years, that group lost members and is short staffed. The Mayor wanted to hire some help for Shea and as the meeting unfolded, the Mayor was questioned on the the lifting of the hiring freeze by her antagonist friend Mike Cannon. She insists that the freeze was for only this fiscal year 2020 and not 2021. Unless I'm hearing and reading this all wrong, the Mayor IMO has made a mistake.

While I do agree, commercial economic development is an important factor in raising much needed tax revenue for the cities needs, so much of the economy is poised to be very different for the foreseeable future or until we all get vaccinated. Many businesses in Town may not be able to come back from the devastating losses, which means more unemployment, which is already at 13% here in the Ham.
Bottom line, there should be no new hires in any department, including public health and public safety.

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