July 12, 2011|By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, ckeating@courant.com, The Hartford Courant
On the day that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced that at least 200 private-sector jobs will be added at the new CIGNA insurance headquarters in Bloomfield, the governor said he is moving forward with laying off as many as 6,500 state employees to balance the state budget.
Layoff notices have already gone out to hundreds of employees, but the vast majority will be going out in the coming days to all departments throughout the state. Even the Department of Correction and the state police — two areas that traditionally had been seen as protected from employee reductions — are not exempt.
"There were no exceptions,'' Malloy told reporters. "The layoffs had to be delivered in such a way that they were broad-based, and they are. It does not exclude any particular portion of government.''
Malloy and his staff declined Tuesday to reveal the precise number of notices so far but they said more information will be available Thursday and Friday.
"In some areas, final decisions have been made,'' Malloy said. "On Friday, we will submit the final plan to the legislature.''
Workers targeted for layoffs are being notified by supervisors, face to face, as they were during a first round of layoff notices — most of which were rescinded when the administration reached a deal with union leaders. That deal, however, was never ratified by the union membership. If a targeted worker is on vacation, arrangements will be made to reach them.
As part of the budget-cutting plans, the state will close the Bergin Correctional Institute by mid-August after the last prison inmate leaves on Aug. 5. In addition, the Enfield Correctional Institution is set to close by October 1. Overall, if the schedule proceeds, four prisons would be closed in less than two years — dating to the tenure of Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
When asked if the Enfield prison will close regardless of whether a deal is reached with the unions, Malloy said: "I don't know that. I do know that Enfield is one of the older prisons and is in need of a substantial capital improvement to take it up to standard.''
Malloy's senior adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, rejected the notion that public safety could be in jeopardy with reductions in staff in the prison and among state police. He noted that both commissioners — Reuben F. Bradford at the state police and Leo Arnone in the Department of Correction — are career public safety officers who started out at the ground floor in their agencies. Bradford was a trooper and Arnone was a prison guard.
"They were directed not to jeopardize public safety,'' Occhiogrosso said. "The last thing they would do is jeopardize public safety.''
Malloy had originally said last week that Tuesday would likely be the day for "large-scale'' layoff notices to be sent out. The notices now will be spread out throughout the week.
"What we are doing is finalizing, on a department-by-department basis,'' Malloy said Tuesday. "Larger and larger and larger number of employees will begin to receive their notices, starting today.''
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