Tooele lays off 22 more government employees

Tooele lays off 22 more government employees


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TOOELE — Another 22 people have been laid off by county government in Tooele.

After the disposal of a chemical weapon stockpile was completed and federal funding for the project pulled, Tooele County government has been constrained to a $23 million budget for 2013 — a $4 million budget cut. As a result, they released 22 corrections officers in August, and in another round of layoffs this week, let go of another 22 government employees throughout the county.

The layoffs, said County Commissioner Colleen Johnson, were in the attorney's, assessor's and auditor's offices, as well as the Deseret Peak complex.

Johnson said that if the county jail received more federal inmates, the county could rehire the corrections officers laid off in the first round. Johnson said all their talent went to waste without inmates to supervise.

"We had hired that many and put them through POST," Johnson said. "We have the capacity of 225 beds and we had only 100 prisoners in there."

Commissioners also got full-time benefits from the county this year, but Johnson says they met a state retirement mandate and started working full-time.

The county hopes that these will be the last layoffs, especially so close to the holiday season.

"I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know what's going to happen," Johnson said. "I don't think the economy is going to turn around as fast as some people would like it to, and I don't think it will either. But, we have to do what we can do because people still want the services that the county offers."

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Peter Samore

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