McGinn postponing job cuts to boost employee morale

Mayor Mike McGinn sent a Saturday afternoon memo to city staff postponing 200 job cuts he was planning to make in the next few weeks.

On his first day in office, McGinn called for the layoff or demotion of 200 senior managers, executives and strategic advisers. Early estimates showed the city's general fund could be $40 million short next year, and other city funds are also struggling.

McGinn sent a series of memos detailing the number of jobs he wanted to cut from each department and asking department heads to get back to him with recommendations so he could make decisions by mid-March.

Now McGinn says he's stopping the process for the time being, with a spokesman for his office saying the process was hurting employee morale. He also learned the city's budget situation is even worse than he thought, so 200 cuts might not be enough.

McGinn now plans to recommend midyear cuts by June 30. Those will likely include job cuts, said his spokesman, Mark Matassa, but they'll be done in a way that's more "thoughtful and methodical."

"He wants to do it right, and he was hearing from enough people that this was not the best way to do it," Matassa said.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com