In pushing for changes to layoffs procedures, Mayor Mike Johnston is taking on entrenched interests that have often discounted skills and abilities that could make government more efficient, a source close to the mayor’s office argued.
The city government should encourage the kind of innovations permeating the private sector, and keeping a seniority-based system could stifle that aspiration, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to provide the Johnston administration’s rationale in pursuing the changes.
The Career Services Board voted last week to make it easier to shed employees in light of a projected $200 million budget deficit, even as unions vowed to fight the changes a month before city hall is set to begin employee layoffs…