(Feb. 20, 2009, The Kansas City Star)

KC’s Water Services Department is discussing the possibility of up to 90 layoffs, Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s budget SWAT team heard Friday.

At the same meeting, the budget panel proposed asking the department to chip in $4 million to help the city get through its budget crisis.

If the City Council approves such a move, that could hike water rates — already proposed to go up 10 percent in the next fiscal year — by an additional 5 percent, according to city staff.

The upshot: a 15 percent boost in rates from a city agency that many people consider to be providing subpar services right now.

The 90-layoff idea also is irritating a lot of Water Services Department employees. They have heard that the City Manager’s office has proposed moving some former city jail employees to the department.

So would longtime water workers get the pink slip even while former jail employees move over to the water department?

(Original Article Here)

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