"Everyone who is involved in the actual day-to-day work recognizes that the Mayor's Office is effectively sabotaging the city's services," Michael Rider, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1180, said in a written statement.
"AFSCME's feeling toward the freeze basically articulates the same feelings as that of the workforce and the majority of supervisors," he said.
Bartlett announced the freeze in a letter to employees Monday, citing lower-than-expected sales tax revenue. All hiring will be suspended through June 30 for positions that receive more than 15 percent of their funding from the city's general fund.
Bartlett also told employees that overtime and temporary workers "should not be used to circumvent the freeze."
But without a way to compensate for retirement and other forms of attrition, service quality will suffer, Rider said.
"The employees are out there trying to do a good job of still providing the service, but it's getting to the point where the citizens are really going to start to feel it - it's unavoidable," he said in a telephone interview.
Rider said the freeze may force employees to forgo vacation time, which could "have ripple effects" later. The city would also suffer if an employee with years of valuable experience leaves without a replacement, he said.
City Manager Jim Twombly said the city expects "some hardship" for employees but that officials do not expect immediate significant impacts on the city's external services, such as animal control and building inspection.
Internal services, such as finance and information technology, may have more noticeable effects, he said.
"The mayor is looking at this as short term through the end of the fiscal year and a reassessment at that point," Twombly said,Louis Vuitton Handbags. "We would not expect to see an appreciable - any significant or really noticeable - deterioration in service to our external customers in the short term."
He said the city has slightly more than 100 vacant general fund positions,louis vuitton purses, or 4 percent of its roughly 3,600 employees. That exceeds the 70-80 vacancies that typically occur at any given time,Toms Shoes, he said.
Twombly noted that if any vacant positions are deemed critical by a department head, that department can appeal to the mayor through the Human Resources Department.
The city also plans a "blanket exemption" for the 911 center, he said.
Services that are funded by fees,monster beats, such as solid waste and water and sewer, are not included in the hiring freeze, and police and firefighters have told the Tulsa World that the freeze is not expected to harm their departments,foceng.com/toryburch.html.
The city's latest monthly check from the Oklahoma Tax Commission was 7.4 percent smaller than the city expected.
So far this fiscal year,Gucci Outlet, Tulsa has collected $191,073,237 in sales tax revenue, or 1.4 percent below budget projections.
Rider said he believes that the city's surplus funds can cover that shortfall without a hiring freeze. Instead, he said, the city may be intentionally "starving" its services.
"What we're seeing across the country in the public sector is administrations will come in and starve the city service of its resources and then they'll say, 'Oh, it's failing,true religion outlet. We need to put this out and see if a private company can do this job better,' " he said. Related articles:
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