Mayor Orders Hiring and Spending Freeze for City of Haverhill

Mayor James J. Fiorentini ordered a hiring and spending freeze for the remainder of the fiscal year. 

Fiorentini froze all new, non-essential hires and ordered that all expenditures of $500 or more must be personally reviewed by him.

Fiorentini stated:

“We know that we have a large budget deficit in FY09.  We have seen this coming for some time and have been planning for it.  We’ve been building up our tax base, making structural changes to health insurance and reorganizing city government.

“Even with these long-term structural changes, we know we have a deficit in FY09.  It would be foolish to hire people at this point since under our union agreements the last people hired are the first ones let go in a lay-off.” 

Fiorentini also stated that all expenditures of $500 or more must be reviewed by him personally:

“We are not going to spend one nickel more that is absolutely necessary.”