Fresh Loaf

Number of state employees laid off this fiscal year: 345

Number of state employees who were furloughed in late February: 24,969

Percentage by which the number of furloughed employees has increased since then: 27

Total number of employees in the state Department of Corrections: 13,500

Number of days Department of Corrections employees are required to take as unpaid leave in the first half of 2009: 2

Total number of employees in the state Department of Transportation: 6,000

Number of days DOT employees are required to take as unpaid leave in the first half of 2009: 1

Total number of employees in the University System of Georgia: 40,000

Number of days that University System employees are required to take as unpaid leave: 0

Sources: AJC.com, www.macon.com, www.dot.state.ga.us, www.usg.edu

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The Franklin folks have sent out a press release touting, “City Workers on the Job on Christmas.” As the release goes on to explain:

Workers from the departments of Watershed Management, Public Works, Aviation and Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, as well as the Fire and Police Departments, will be on the job while their neighbors, friends and families celebrate the holidays.

Bummer. I’m sure the administration simply wants to assure taxpayers that the people who provide their city services aren’t slacking off over Christmas, but now I just feel guilty that these poor schmucks have to work tomorrow while I’m chillin’ at home with a snifter of Scotch-laced eggnog.

In fact, the more I think about it, I’m not certain that the real purpose of the release wasn’t to make us all feel guilty, that the hidden message wasn’t something like: “We’ve laid off nearly 1,000 employees and cut the salaries of the rest so that you can sit home on Christmas Day in Scotch-addled comfort. We hope you’re satisfied!”

Is it just us, or is City Hall kind of passive-aggressive?

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From Romenesko:

Cox Newspapers Washington bureau chief Andy Alexander will become the Washington Post’s ombudsman for a two-year term beginning Feb. 2. “He brings with him more than 30 years of experience in the news industry and will be an excellent advocate for our readers,” writes Post publisher Katharine Weymouth. Cox Newspaper announced this week that Alexander’s bureau will shut down in April.

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Cox Newspapers, a subsidiary of Cox Communications and owner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says it will shut down its national and international news bureau in Washington, D.C. on April 1, 2009.

A company memo posted on Romenesko says the AJC and Dayton Daily News will “manage their own Washington and international newsgathering independently following the national bureau’s closing through dedicated correspondents in D.C.” Eligible employees of the D.C. bureau will be offered “generous” severance packages and continued employment until March 31. Bureau chief Andy Alexander will retire at the end of the year.

“The Washington news bureau and its chief, Andy Alexander, have an impressive and storied history in Washington and in our company,” Sandy Schwartz, Cox Newspapers president, said in the memo. “For more than 30 years, the reporters of this bureau have broken an untold number of stories that have had an impact on the lives of our readers in cities and towns all across the U.S. The Cox Washington bureau has won or shared virtually every major American journalism award, including the Pulitzer Prize.”

After the jump, read the entire memo. It includes details about Alexander’s career — it’s been an impressive one — and information about the international bureau.

(more…)

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About two weeks ago, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin announced city-wide employee furloughs to cut spending.

Today, she dropped the other shoe.

This morning, Franklin laid out her plan to slash another $14 million from the budget; the casualties include 23 recreation centers, the annual Atlanta Jazz Fest and a total of 222 more city jobs.

We’re not talking here about eliminating unfilled positions — nearly all of those were wiped out in previous rounds of cuts. These are actual city employees.

As the Mayor put it: “We are cutting into what we believe is the bone.”

Here’s where the bulk of the layoffs are falling:

• 58 employees from Public Works, mostly in trash and yard waste collection
• 25 employees from Planning, predominantly in building permits
• 107 recreation center employees

(more…)

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We’re looking for stories from real, actual, genuine people who’ve been affected by the credit crisis, rising unemployment, layoffs, decreasing property values. You know? People like yourself.

Got a story of your own? Or do you know someone else who has a story to tell? If so, please leave a comment (with a way to get a hold of you) or e-mail me at ken.edelstein@creativeloafing.com.

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Longtime business columnist Maria Saporta is taking the AJC buyout, according to the Atlanta Press Club.

To my mind, this is a big blow to the paper. Saporta, who’s cultivated links with the business community for more than two decades and who’s dad was a well-known and well-liked Atlanta architect, understands the business, civic and political circles of this community like no one else at the AJC.

As I understand it, the AJC doesn’t have to accept her application for the buyout, but I suspect it will let her go.

Today’s the last day for employees who’ve worked at the paper for at least five years to apply for the buyout, as the AJC tries to reduce its edit and sales work force by 185 people. If there aren’t enough buyouts, the paper will likely resort to layoffs.

I’ll try to get more on this.

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This may sound odd for an organization that prides itself on the free flow of ideas, but staffers who are leaving Atlanta Journal-Constitution are being required to sign an agreement that they won’t “disparage” the paper or its management once they leave, according to several AJC employees.

“I was pretty surprised to see that in there,” said one reporter who’s viewed the agreement.

The AJC didn’t care to discuss the stipulation. “As standard practice, we don’t disclose any specifics regarding legal agreements we have with employees,” says spokeswoman Jennifer Morrow.

But one employee said the severance agreement being presented to employees this month bars those who sign it from making “any disparaging or untrue statements about the company,” its subsidiaries or any other employee. The source indicated that the quote was lifted from the actual agreement (I’d love to get my hands on a copy; please e-mail me if you’d like to share one).

An employee who left during last year’s buyout confirmed that similar phrasing was in the severance agreement he signed last year. That employee said the agreement caused some former writers and editors to refrain from discussing newsroom management in media coverage last year, specifically an Atlanta Magazine profile of Editor Julia Wallace by former CL writer Steve Fennessy.

(more…)

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The city’s Department of Planning and Community Development — which oversees the bureaus of buildings, planning, code compliance and housing in Atlanta — was ordered to lay off 38 workers on Thursday per Mayor Shirley Franklin’s suggestions to alleviate the city’s budget shortfall. The department also eliminated 12 vacant positions, a spokesperson says.

It’s still too early to determine how the lay offs and budget crunch will affect projects, the spokesperson says. The Connect Atlanta Plan, the city’s first-ever comprehensive transportation plan, is being designed by consultants, not city employees, and will not be affected.

Still waiting to get back what duties were eliminated and whether it was an across-the-board cut or focused on lower-level employees.

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