At the budget hearing for the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services, the council pressed directors over line items and expressed dismay at the provisional layoffs at the department and cuts to senior trip programming.
Jersey City Ward B Councilman Joel Brooks said the employee census of the department was 140 people, of which there were eight of the 31 transitional employees who were laid off earlier this month – the highest number amid the other department lay offs.
Business Administrator Ruby Choi said that all the departmental decisions made regarding the provisional layoffs were hard decisions that weren’t taken lightly following weeks of discussions with department directors on the impacts on internal operations and external services.
“We are unfortunately in the budget situation that we’re in that we had to make these hard decisions,” Choi said…