Employees being laid off from the UNM Office of Capital Projects said the budget shortfalls are caused by a combination of mismanagement and hard economic times.
Alec Mottershead, an OCP architectural draftsman, said jobs could have been saved if it weren’t for bad management decisions.
Mottershead, a father of two, said he was three years from retirement. He cited a $2.8 million renovation, unnecessary promotions and other fiscal mismanagement as partial reason for the layoffs.
“Ironically, I have a 15-year anniversary ceremony at the SUB tomorrow — two years late,” he said. “God, I hope they don’t ask me to say anything.”
He said he will now have to wait 10 years to receive 30 percent of his pre-layoff salary.
And Gordon Strickland, an OCP project manager, said in an e-mail that the layoffs have affected OCP employees in different ways.
“Some are young, trying to get started in a career, so this is discouraging for them,” he said. “Some are almost at retirement age, and losing a year or so of pay will affect how much retirement income they have, which is scary.”
Strickland said the OCP has budgetary problems. He said layoffs could have been prevented if better fiscal management had taken place.
“We knew almost two years ago that new construction projects were drying up, and a year ago it was clear that we were in trouble,” he said.
However, William Turner, OCP director, said they didn’t know exactly how severe the hard times would be, even though they knew they were coming.
“We didn’t predict the magnitude of the downturn that we are experiencing,” he said. “We predicted that there would be a reduction of work, but not to the degree that it has turned out.”
Mottershead said the economy only accounted for half of the problems in the OCP.
“No one could see the economic downturn coming,” he said. “So, I give the management here a blank check for about half the problems here, but the other half has been basically criminally inept mismanagement.”
Mottershead said OCP employees have been watching the department spend money when they knew that there would be less work in the future. He said it was difficult for some employees to understand why money was spent for renovations when the OCP knew that income from construction projects was dropping.
“If you are the captain of the Titanic and realize you’ve scraped an iceberg, your logical sense would be to steer away from the iceberg,” he said. “I’ve seen nothing but them steering directly into it and going full speed ahead.”
Turner said the OCP offices were remodeled to consolidate employees into one space. He said regardless of budget issues it was more efficient for employees to be able to have designated office space.
“We still needed office space,” he said. “You can’t work out of your car.”
Renovations cost about $2.8 million, but Turner said renovating actually saved the University money.
“It saved $100 per square foot compared to building new,” he said. “It is way cheaper to renovate underutilized existing space than it is to build new.”
Mottershead said the renovations might have contributed to the budget problems that resulted in layoffs.
“You’d be hard pressed to convince me that some of these completely aesthetic and nonessential remodels didn’t contribute greatly to some of the six people getting laid off here,” he said.
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Apart from the renovation, Strickland said it also upset some employees that the OCP hired two project managers from outside the University and then promoted them to group managers.
“The OCP was putting on new positions at higher pay while the workload was falling,” he said.
Turner said OCP promoted the group managers as part of a department reorganization that was outlined to the administration two years ago. He said it was delayed because UNM President David Schmidly put a hold on all hires and reorganizations.
Turner said Schmidly changed that aspect of the hiring freeze and allowed the OCP to continue with the reorganization.
“It is not a vision of promoting people. It is a vision of organizing for efficiency and for better customer representation,” Turner said. “It gives us the opportunity to create points of contact for our customers.”
Turner said regardless of how many people the OCP office employed, north campus, main campus, south campus and branch campuses needed to have points of contact in the OCP office.
Mottershead said the OCP has been stripped to the bones, and Strickland said he agreed that, with the way the office is structured now, it will likely continue to shrink.
“I really don’t see how the department itself can survive even another year,” Mottershead said.
Turner said historically the OCP’s workload has fluctuated.
“It is hard to predict in this economic time what’s going to happen a year from now,” he said. “But in the long term those capital streams will renew themselves and our workload will go back up.”
Turner said he warned employees since he first saw a budget downturn to keep their eyes out for other employment.
“I’ve been telling employees for two years that if they have good opportunities they should consider them,” he said. “And they should always keep their résumés in shape.”
Turner said the department is continuing to work on the problem and even found a way to save one position.
“We continue to do what we can to retain positions,” he said. “We are able to project enough income that we are going to withdraw one of the layoffs.”
However, Turner said the OCP’s administration is vital to the organization.
“Our senior people are our most productive people,” he said. “We retain our senior people because they do more.”
Mottershead said he worries about supporting his wife and two daughters.
“I haven’t found anything. The economy is bad all the way around” he said. “Yeah, I’m nervous.”
