Disappeared News: You be the judge—can Lingle lay off state workers?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

You be the judge—can Lingle lay off state workers?

by Larry Geller

Governor Linda Lingle thought she could furlough state works to help balance the state budget. Of course should could, right? It turned out that she couldn’t.

Ok, now Lingle has issued layoff notices. Come Friday Nov. 13, after bumping is complete, there should be some jobs lost. She can do that, right?

Well, it’s back in court.

Download this legal complaint, filed in First Circuit Court on August 5 by attorney Charles K.Y. Khim on behalf of a group of named plaintiffs and intended to be a class action. The file is a searchable pdf file.

There are several arguments made, and some information on Kulani Correctional Center. It’s true that the money spent in constructing this facility would be wasted, as mentioned in the complaint, but I would think that the state is free to decide to do that. Many of the arguments seem to be, well, arguments in the lay sense, saying Lingle or the state could have done this or that instead of laying off state workers. I don’t know if I would buy that reasoning. I’m oversimplifying the reasoning though, and it has to be taken as a whole.

So you be the judge.