By Charles Doud and DJ Becker
More than 20 City of Madera employees got bad news this week — their jobs could be eliminated due to reductions in the proposed 2012-13 municipal budget. In all, 29 jobs would be cut, said City Administrator David Tooley — 22 of them through layoffs. The others are vacant positions that won’t be filled.
Tooley made the budget presentation at a preliminary hearing Friday night to the City Council, which heard the news with solemn faces.
“This is a tough one for all of us,” said Mayor Brett Frazier, “especially when we see the faces of the affected people looking back at us. They are our neighbors, our family, our friends.”
Frazier said the city had avoided many layoffs until now because Tooley and the city had operated cautiously the past few years...