The affected employees the group includes three police officers -- will learn their fate as early as today, town officials said; and Town Supervisor Scott Russell left the door open for the possibility of additional layoffs as Southold tries to cope with an ever-widening budget gap.
"The positions we cut don't get us to the goal we want to reach, but there is a concerted effort to find money elsewhere to close the gap," the supervisor said, while noting that the town is slashing $625,000 from its payroll by cutting more than 7 percent of the 215 town positions represented by unions.
"We might have to go back to the [employee] list and cut more positions as we go. Right now, we cut the least amount of positions that we possibly could," Mr. Russell added.
Union representatives will meet today to discuss the civil service layoff procedures and how to offer "assistance to our brothers and sisters who are going to be affected by these almost certain layoffs," Tom Skabry, president of the Civil Service Employees Association Unit 8785, stated on the unit's Web site.
At a board meeting Tuesday night Mr. Skabry chastised members of the Town Board -- particularly the supervisor -- for not approving a budget with a higher tax increase -- Mr. Russell proposed a 13-percent tax increase last fall, but the board eventually approved a spending plan that raised tax bills by 10 percent.
"It bothers my mind that politics have engaged in this whole entire budget process," Mr. Skabry told the board. "And I can fault only you, Mr. Supervisor, for not standing your ground. ... To the other members of the board, shame on you for knowingly presenting a budget to this town that you knew would be underfunded."
Mr. Russell has indeed lamented the fact that the budget did not call for more tax dollars and has repeatedly said that "no one should be surprised" by the $1 million budget gap, a shortfall that he fully expects will grow.
The layoffs were a measure that Councilman Tom Wickham tried to avoid during a Town Board meeting Tuesday afternoon. In the end, some of his proposals were accepted, resulting in the saving of several jobs.
The town will severely cut police overtime hours and will suspend some asphalt and storm mitigation projects, as Mr. Wickham had suggested.
"Before I'm prepared to support a draconian solution to our budget problems, I think we really need to go as far as we can on other savings without totally relying on [employee] salaries."
Lower than expected revenues from interest and earnings, along with shortfalls in mortgage tax collections, have produced a general fund deficit of about $806,000, town officials said. A significant slowdown in construction has put the solid waste department $274,000 in the hole.
The town took several other measures to avoid more firings.
In a move that will remove $45,000 from the payroll, the town's elected and appointed officials -- in addition to workers exempt from union representation -- will each have their salaries cut by 3.5 percent.
Furthermore, the police department will be asked to "make deep cuts in overtime," Mr. Russell said.
"Our police coverage will be reduced," Mr. Russell said. "For instance, if someone calls in sick, there may be no one to fill in for the person."
Personnel to be cut and departments to be affected were not made public. The town has compiled a list of positions it intends to eliminate and has submitted to the CSEA for approval. The layoffs will take affect Aug. 1, Mr. Russell said.
"Most offices are affected, one way or another," said Mr. Russell, adding that three police officers are among those getting laid off. "This was our last resort."
Town board members had proposed cutting work hours for town employees, but union officials balked at the idea, citing CSEA policy not to make any concessions in existing contracts.
"The union every step of the way refused to discuss options with us," Mr. Russell said. "We were looking for any solution to spread the burden out as evenly as possible, and avoid layoffs at all costs."
Some town workers, worried that they'll be among the 15 full-time and one part-time workers to lose their jobs, attended the Town Board meeting Tuesday night at Town Hall.
Tom Crowley, a full-time driver for Meals on Wheels and The Suffolk Times Public Servant of the Year, was one of them.
"We didn't see this coming," said Mr. Crowley, a 68-year-old who has made serving the North Fork's elderly population a second career for four years.
Mary Beth Gramazio, a part-time driver for the town's Meals on Wheels for two years, was also afraid that her job was on the line.
"I feel like I've been blindsided," she said. "They don't look at where they're wasting money ... Even they as part-time board members get full benefits."
Phyllis Markopoulous, a case worker for the Department of Human Resources, said the Town Board was not diligent enough in running the town like a business.
"There are ways for [the town] to make money," she said.
Resident Melanie Norden has been outspoken at Town Board meetings about looking at ways for the town to make money, instead of concentrating so heavily on cutting expenses.
"You should seriously consider marketing some places for special events," she said. "It's big business now and really easy to do in terms of a marketing strategy."
Councilman Al Krupski said that the board has been hesitant about marketing places that local tax payers already pay to maintain.
During the afternoon, the board met in executive session, away from the public, to discuss how to improve the budget and to determine how many, and which, positions to cut.
Outside the meeting room the heads of several town departments were visibly tense as they quietly discussed the pending layoffs.
One department head, noting the reaction of an office secretary, said, "She's in tears today, and she'll be in tears for the next two weeks."
Another department boss noted how "everybody's moping around the office."
bharmon@timesreview.com