What's Left of Maplewood (MN)

We can't draw, so we are left with verbal cartoons about Maplewood city politics.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

More Firings

A tip from one of our readers:

The manager and assistant manager of the Community Center were informed [Friday] that their positions are being written out of the budget and they are done as of December 31. The AM was taken to lunch to be informed of this on his 30th birthday [Friday]. He has a new premie baby at home so wil have no health insurance as mom needs to stay home.

Both were informed that they will get one month’s severance if they resign prior to the end of the year. They will be far better served by being ‘laid off’ so they can collect unemployment. These two worked alternate shifts at the Center to keep the it open 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. They have been at the Center since it opened. How will the city replace them with no money in the budget for those positions? Legally they can’t but I am sure the ‘powers’ think they can figure out a way to do it. Maybe with their friends and family???

These two make the 10th and 11th employees victimized by the triumvirate and their hatchet man. How much more can the community take before there are no services left?

posted by Frostbrand @ 11:18 AM  

17 Comments:

  • At 2:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    This is not a game. These three loonies and their lackey are affecting real people and real families. There is a lot of fear by employees right now. Good people who have worked hard to make Maplewood a great place to live and work are fearing for their jobs and the welfare of their families. How long will it take residents to stand up and say, "Enough is enough.?" Maplewood is not their personal kingdom.

     

  • At 4:16 PM, Blogger drawnLeftward said…

    I think we need to start counting commissioners too, starting with Dale Trippler losing the Environmental Commission position. He is very qualified and the position meant a lot to him.

     

  • At 7:05 PM, Blogger Frostbrand said…

    While agreeing with the anonymous first comment, I am not sure what residents will be able to do when the stand up -- short of electing a replacement for Cave next fall. And an awful lot of damage can be done between now and then.

    And then fixing things will involve further disruption. If a new council majority next fall fires Copeland and seeks to restore sanity, that probably means firing the new layer of management the new budget puts between Copeland and the department heads. Anyone who is thinking of coming to work for Maplewood to fill those positions should know that their position will be tenuous, and might not last even a year. Given that, what kind of candidates are we likely to get? Clones of Copeland?

     

  • At 8:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    If enough people would attend their clowncil meetings and stay until 2 in the morning maybe they would get the idea they cannot do whatever they wish. They dropped the Xcel tax soon enough when people stood up to them. Maybe we can limit the amount of damage done to our city in the next 11 months before the election.

     

  • At 6:02 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hey Diana - I know you're reading this, I just got promises from 10 people who will donate $100 each to a qualified candidate that runs against your lapdog Cave. This is fun, I enjoy raising money for candidates, and I do it really well..... Remember, we're watching you, we even know where you're at with your CLE's....

     

  • At 9:07 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Be warned...I'm sure if any one of the gang gets ousted,or a whole group,the will most definately practice a "scorched earth policy".

     

  • At 10:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    They are already "scorching the earth." It's time we sent in the "firefighters."

     

  • At 10:29 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hmm. I wonder, did these two Community Center staff ever stand up to the Mayor's husband in the past? The vendetta firings may never end if they include anyone who ever asked Kevin to please step back and remove his camera from their face.

     

  • At 5:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I know Linda is the manger. But who is the assistant manager? Russ?

     

  • At 5:43 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    They did nothing except try to make the center profitable. Remember, a big part of what this 'budget' is to fix is making the center profitable. The threesome never needed an excuse to behave badly. and now they are on a roll and don't care who gets hurt. Revenge feels good until its slaps you back. Time iwll tell.

     

  • At 8:55 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I talked to Russ last night, and he confirmed it was he and Linda that are being let go.

    Copeland's presnetation was funny last night. A lot of focus on getting the Community Center to be profitable, increasing memberships, increasing theater and banquet facility usesage, etc. All great ideas. Then there are a lot of deferred maintenance expenses that need to be addressed at the community center and the council started to nickel and dime every little thing. Even $6,000 for paint!

    So they want to promote and market the community center, but don't want to put money into it, and they fire the two key people who work there? Whatever.

     

  • At 12:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    What a vision of paradise, having a situation where elected officials cannot eliminate any staff positions ever.

     

  • At 12:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    The last anonymous is a moron. It's not the fact that they are "reorganizing" staff members. It's how they are going about it. Most of the positions being "reorganized" are being replaced by the same position only with a new job title. (ie, community center staff)

     

  • At 4:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Rather than call people morons, why don't some of these community center groupies give the rest of us the old job discriptions versus the new ones?

    You can shoot off your mouth all you want about how one job is eliminated and is replaced with an identical job, but I would like to see some proof.

    The claim that all community center employees are the same is about as dumb as saying that all police officers are the same. Now if I wake up one morning and find myself chained to a bomb, I am going to ask for the officer who is the bomb expert to assist me, not the school liaison officer.

    On the community center issue, I recall reading that one position was being changed from hourly to commission based. Now if this is accurate, this is a major change. Does anyone know if the basis of pay was changed?

     

  • At 10:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    They are hiring two new people that are supposed to be "more focused on advertising" or whatever.

    I'm wondering why they didn't consider modifying the job descriptions of the two poeple who are being let go. Could they have done a good job at promoting the CC? We'll never know...

     

  • At 4:43 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Why don't the two who were let go reapply for the new jobs? Anyone can apply. Maybe they are not the best qualified?

     

  • At 11:08 AM, Blogger Frostbrand said…

    Huh.

    If someone rewrote your job description in a trivial way just so they could effectively fire you without cause, would you apply?

     

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