Also remember that Unions do not make one immune to layoffs.

As part of the reorganization, the city’s public works director, an account clerk and a part-time office assistant will be laid off in early April. The responsibilities and titles of four other employees will change, and three new positions — a principal analyst, a management analyst and a senior accountant — will be added.

Tim McCormick of Laborers International Union Local 270A, the union that represents 41 nonpublic safety city employees, said they had been told during the last budget cuts that they were safe from layoffs. Colangelo’s plan caught them off guard.

“It wasn’t reasonable notice,” said McCormick. Announced on Feb. 14, the reorganization has been dubbed by some employees as the St. Valentines’ Day Massacre.

One member of the union will be laid off as a result of the reorganization, he said. For the remaining employees, the sudden announcement has made them feel vulnerable and question their loyalty to the city, McCormick said.

P.G. City Council Votes For Layoffs

Makes sense to centralize common tasks and put department leaders to work in their departments.

Departments affected include recreation, community development, public works and the city’s golf course, library and museum.

“I don’t think this is a massacre,” Colangelo said. “This is something necessary to move the organization forward. This is a relatively small step we are taking.”

City department heads spend “too much time doing administrative tasks instead of providing the services we need to be providing,” he said.

Under Colangelo’s plan, tasks burdening department heads would be shifted to city administrators. Department head posts would be eliminated. Senior departmental staff members, who are paid less, would run the departments.

“I have to support my city manager,” said Recreation Director John Miller. “Changes have to be made, and this is his vision.”

Miller, who worked for the city as a teenager and started full time in 1979, said past city managers talked about reorganizing, but he has never seen any action.

“This is actually the first time in my 28 years that a plan has come forward to move in the direction of centralizing everything,” he said.

P.G. City Department Heads On The Block

The blast blew out the shop’s windows and pushed an external wall six inches out of line, he said.

The fire crew shut down everything within 1,000 feet of the shop, bringing surrounding businesses and traffic to a halt, Miller said. After determining that the explosion was caused by a gas leak, the crew closed off natural gas lines and informed Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the health department.

Explosion At Patisserie Bechler