On Friday, six people were laid off at the Vincennes City Street department. Each were informed of their status by a firm based out of Muncie, Indiana hired by Mayor Al Baldwin (D). The Mayor did not attend the meetings, nor did anyone from the city council – but the city council gets a pass, they didn’t know anything about the meetings, the firm or the layoffs.

According to Mayor Baldwin, the cuts needed to happen immediately and that he didn’t have time to consult with the city council. He’s been busy.

On Monday, those six individuals got the opportunity to ask the Mayor in person why they were the ones laid off and what the criteria was for picking who went. The Mayor really didn’t have any good answers, only that he and  superintendent Bryce Anderson thought those remaining would adapt the best to upcoming changes.

One of the men layed off, Mark Murphy, had worked at the street department for nearly 14 years.  Murphy accused the mayor of releasing them because “you didn’t like us and wanted to get rid of us. I think you were bias in your decision”.

But the real fireworks broke out when the wife of another layed off worker questioned the new “handbook” that the mayor paid nearly $40,000 for to the same Muncie firm to develop. Apparently, the mayor issued the handbook to city employees without first consulting with city council, something councilmen Mark Hill (D) took exception to.

“How can you publish a document that’s not supported by current legislation? Why weren’t we informed about this process?

The Mayor informed councilmen Hill that he had been “too busy” to consult with them and that he planned on bringing the handbook up with council in the near future. That didn’t sit well with Hill or with councilmen Pat Clark (D). Councilmen Clark took the opportunity to lay out other issues he has with the administration including department heads carrying weapons. He said that the city would be liable if something were to happen and that he was concerned that if the city inspector were to knock on someones door and then go to “scratch his butt”, someone might think that he was going for his gun and shoot him.

The Mayor admitted that many of the changes in the handbook needed city council approval first, and noted that the process “wasn’t finished yet”.

Bloody 8th note…if your not done with the process yet, and you don’t have council approval yet – why on earth would you issue the handbooks to the employees? That simply isn’t good practice.