The city is facing layoffs due to the loss of sales tax revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mayor Kurt Mayabb, who said he would like consider other measures before cutting jobs.
In an emergency city council meeting Monday, Mayabb said that the financial shape of the city is the reason the city manager is considering the layoffs.
“I did not know that we were in that bad of shape with finances,” Mayabb said.
He said he spoke with City Manager Jason Orr last week about the possibility of layoffs.
“I don’t know if we should do layoffs at this time in my opinion,” Mayabb said.
He suggested trying to cut hours worked by employees instead of layoffs.
“I just feel like we’re in a tough time,” Mayabb said. “And citizens and employees are as well.”
“We have reserves. I feel like if we have reserves to get through these situations then why are we doing layoffs?” Mayabb said.
The meeting Monday night was streamed on Facebook Live and by audio through dial-in telephone numbers. People were urged not to attend. Piedmont’s emergency proclamation has been extended to May 31.
Mayabb said one option included freezing all finances. The sales tax revenues were down $60,000 to $70,000 last month and April is expected to be no better.
City Council Member John Brown said he thought the financial reserves should help in the current situation.
“That’s why we have reserves. We have reserves to take care of these kinds of situations. We don’t know when things like this are going to come along like tornadoes and droughts, and all the things we run across. That is why we have reserves. When the tornado came through it cost us $1 million and we got a good portion of that back from the government, but it took two years,” Brown said.
Listeners to the meeting by telephone complained of being unable to hear all council members speak. Due to the technical difficulties, the meeting was adjourned. The council will consider the issues again next Monday.
