Johnson, Turner decline comment on HR position cut

"I don't have any comments," Turner said.

Johnson echoed, "I can't comment on that."

Although the request may seem to have come out of nowhere, Fort Scott City Commissioner Jean Parker said the idea was discussed by the commission during budget work sessions prior to the approval of the 2010 budget.

"We talked about it in budget sessions," Parker said. "It's not like it dropped out of the blue."

Parker and fellow commissioner Sam Mason said the decision was made to help the budget and work through shortfalls. With the decrease or even complete loss of state and federal funding, the budget could be in more trouble.

"There are still things we have to pay for and we need to find that money from somewhere," Parker said. "We have already made commitments, like our street program ... good things that are happening for our city ... but they still have to be paid for."

The city spends 63.57 percent of it's general fund on salary. The Human Resources Position is included in the General Government department which will pay $274,424 in salary in 2010. Cuts to the city's payroll have already been made with the cut of five full-time jobs on the lower level. The streets department was cut $82,500 and the parks department was cut by $14,500.

"You can't cut very many more off the lower end or you're not going to have anybody there to do anything," Parker said.

Mason added, "We thought that maybe by doing this, we could help the budget."

Parker said the commission chose to look at the Human Resources Director position because it was the position which would be the most easily absorbed. Parker took it upon herself to research towns of a similar size to Fort Scott and found that approximately half of the town operate without the position with the duties shifted to other individuals, such as the City Manager.

"I just think that it's possible because other towns our size can do it," Parker said.

"(Turner) was hired on to be the leader and run the city ... he took it on, he has the big broad shoulders," Mason added.

The decision to eliminate the position is now in the hands of Turner. He said will be thinking about his decision in the next week or two.

"I will definitely take my time ... I have got to look at all my options," Turner said.