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Bergen County officials enact hiring freeze

Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco

Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco

DECEMBER 22, 2015, 5:26 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2015, 5:27 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Bergen County officials have declared a hiring freeze while they pursue a disputed wave of layoffs scheduled to take effect by Jan. 1.

County Administrator Dominic Novelli disclosed the freeze in Monday night’s Freeholder meeting while answering a question from a woman in the audience who had asked why there are no jobs currently listed on the county’s website.

“We currently are in a job freeze,” he replied. “We’re not filling positions. We’re actually in the midst of a layoff.”

Related:  Judge won’t block layoffs of 8 Bergen County employees claiming dismissals are political payback

Novelli said after the meeting that the freeze has been in effect since September when the administration made the decision to issue layoff notices to 21 employees on Nov. 1. The notices state that the layoffs were for reasons of “economy and efficiency.”

He said the job freeze did not apply to certain positions, like juvenile detention officers or nurses working in county facilities where there are state-mandated staffing levels.

Novelli’s comments were the first public disclosure of the hiring freeze. It did not come up last week in a hearing in federal court on a lawsuit filed by eight county employee who alleged that they were targeted for layoffs because of their past support of former Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan.

 

https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen-county-officials-enact-hiring-freeze-1.1478277