Posted on 10/14/2005 5:47:47 PM PDT by Libloather
Fired New Orleans city workers get final paychecks
20 minutes ago
Final paychecks were issued to thousands of New Orleans city workers laid off in the wake of ruinous hurricanes, according to city officials. A message posted on the city website provided further details of the layoffs from Mayor Ray Nagin, seen here 6 October(AFP/Getty Images/File)
NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - Final paychecks were issued to thousands of New Orleans city workers laid off in the wake of ruinous hurricanes, according to city officials.
"In addition, all employees who are part of the layoff are asked to turn in any city property immediately, including cell phones, cars and fuel cards," Mayor Ray Nagin said in a message posted Thursday on the city website.
Aftershocks from hurricanes Katrina and Rita continued to batter New Orleans despite signs the crippled city was limping back to life.
"There is no last minute reprieve," Nagin spokeswoman Tammy Frazier told AFP. "This is the last paycheck they will receive."
While bars, restaurants and other businesses were gradually being reopened in the mostly desolate city, most of the residents were still gone and the once-bustling streets were deserted.
Bar operators in the city's famed French Quarter were threatening on Friday to host a midnight party to protest a 12:01 am to 6:00 am curfew they complained is stifling the traditionally festive neighborhood's revival.
The absence of businesses and residents stripped the city of its tax base, prompting Nagin to lay off some 3,000 "non-essential" city workers, about half of the New Orleans workforce.
Nagin tried in vain to get multi-million dollar loans from banks to keep the city workers on payroll, according to Frazier.
"As we look toward a brighter future for our beloved city, we are faced with difficult decisions," Nagin said in a written release.
"We sought funding from every possible public and private source, but unfortunately, we did not receive enough to meet all our needs."
Police, fire and emergency medical personnel remain on the payrolls, with US federal funds paying the bill for overtime.
Nagin expected the cutbacks will save the city between five million and eight million dollars a month.
The layoffs came as stores, restaurants, cleaning and construction companies throughout the New Orleans area went begging for workers.
Local stores were offering to pay from nine to 12 dollars hourly for the usually minimum-wage jobs such as cashiers and stock clerks. One burger chain reportedly offered "signing bonuses" of 6,000 dollars for counter workers.
Laid off city workers whose homes were ruined have no reason to return to New Orleans, said Jacqueline Edwards, who worked in the New Orleans planning department for 23 years.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has urged President George W. Bush to modify federal rules to allow federal aid to pay the wages of local government employees in communities whose tax bases have been wiped out by the storms.
She has also asked Bush to give Louisiana businesses priority in hiring and contracting for the reconstruction effort.
Bush has responded by saying the burden of rebuilding should fall to the private sector.
At least 1,260 people were killed by Katrina when it ripped through the southern United States on August 29, including 1,025 in Louisiana, the hardest-hit state.
you probably have to have some citizens to sign a petition to put a mayor out of office before his term is up....
they haven't got enough citizens and those they do have don't seem to have the initiative to do much of anything.
What does that fact have do with Nagin's and Blanco's incompetent leadership. They are both Democrats!!! If you have the opportunity to meet with the vermin and low life that floated out of New Orleans, as I have, you would understand what I mean. That's the real world as it really is that the current Black leadership and the Democrat Party have created. They are destroying a race of people that deserves much better. Too bad that Black folks can't see the forest for the trees. It's heartbreaking!!!
You forget the large number of republicans and conservatives who live here who have been working, increasing in numbers trying to change this state.
Your comments were beyond silly. They were insulting to every one of us freepers who live here. And they add nothing to the discussion of what role the feds should play when an entire city is destroyed. Not by democrats no matter what you may think, but by a hurricane.
When a city is empty there are no need for employees. What about that seems strange to you. NO is a ghost town except for a few workers, bar owners and a few residents. The schools are closed, govt buildings are closed, businesses are closed. Of course they no longer need half of their employees.
They don't care about anything other than spewing ignorance and hate. They are remarkably similar to the dimwits you see on DU. There is no rational discussion of a city being destroyed and what do you do to make it come back, do you even do that. They just want to mouth off in the most repulsive, insulting, ignorant way.
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!! YOU NAILED IT!!!!!!!
Laureate, not Loriate
How democratic party oriented, using the honor system to return city property from workers who were laid off.....
Gosh, I'll bet the mayor will be surprised when many laid off workers do bad things when they get this information.
You can pick the car up in Nevada......You can pick the car up from the bottom of the river......I lost the cell phone in the hurricane and those long distance charges must belong to someone else, say why would a stranger be calling my mother-in-law......You mean someone used that credit card at a bar or strip club---as Bart Simpson would say--It wasn't me!
She didn't nail anything but just indulged a hateful spiteful spirit. And insulted every freeper here from Louisiana.
The truth is FR is full of people lately who do nothing to create a discussion of a problem, they just indulge their frustrations, vent their spleen, act like jackasses.
Wrong, if Kathleen Blanco and Mayor Nagin had made the choice to evacuate NO and lower LA before the storm hit, none of this would have happened, other than the flooding damage. I mean, c'mon, just look at your death numbers compared to MS which was hit harder and more forcefully by the Hurricane itself. Haley Barbour is a "real" Governor, your folks are losers, and you the people that elected them should pay the price for your foolishness!!! Some of us know the "real" NO and it ain't pretty. Just look at the leadership and see what you wrought. Bad government, bad police force, severe poverty, all caused and fostered by Black leaders and the Democrat Party!! Who do you think you're kidding. You have been drinking too much of the Kool Aid offered by the MSM!! Get Real!!
Amen brother. It's called capitalism. And the RATS fear it mightily.
a parish is a county. I do think Orleans parish includes all of New Orleans but I don't think it includes anything else. The parish president is like a county executive. I think the pop of NO is about half million and the metro area is alot larger but I don't really know.
The parish word just comes from the french catholic settlement.
Aaaah, how refreshing it can be.
again, you are venting your spleen and insulting me. And it is disgusting on your part.
you say none of this wouldl have happened except the flood damage.
The flood damage is the issue, the city is mostly destroyed. The deaths are not the issue now,,,the issue is the people whose lives and homes are gone and the city itself which has in one act of nature lost its tax base.
But I am not going to reply to your ignorant, hate spewing insults.
"non-Mier's thread"
I didn't know there was any such thing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And never knew the day would come when I didn't turn my radio on all day. Enough is enough!
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