Spokesman-Review Letters to the editor
No road worker layoffs
I am writing to correct the misinformation contained in Dr. Kim Thorburn’s letter of Dec. 10, “County on wrong road.”
The Engineering and Roads Department of Spokane County is not laying off 15 road workers. We had 15 vacancies throughout the entire department, six of those being road workers. These vacancies were the result of retirements and regular attrition. While these positions show up as being eliminated in 2009, in reality they were eliminated as the vacancies occurred this year.
In addition, Spokane County successfully concluded labor negotiations with the road crews earlier this year, and to speculate that eliminating already vacant positions is “retaliation” is patently absurd.
To be quite clear, the Engineering and Roads Department is not laying off employees, and county residents will not see a decline in service in 2009.
Bob Brueggeman
Spokane County engineer