Kate McCaslin’s comments regarding the closure of the Spokane County Building and Planning Department on Fridays were shortsighted and reveal she is the one “not operating in the real world.”

The decision to close on Fridays was not made without a lot of discussion on the part of both management and the union. For a department that had almost one-third of its employees laid off last year, laying off another 10 would have left the department with 23 people to cover the front counter, long-range planning, current planning, permitting, enforcement, plan review and building inspections. In short, that would be impossible.

This decision will retain jobs and save the taxpayer money. When new employees are hired to replace the laid-off employees, they would have to be trained. It’s unfair to ask the taxpayer to bear this burden.

That the union and the management have worked together to solve this problem demonstrates what can be accomplished when the management-union relationship is functioning smoothly with a common goal in mind.

Terry Liberty

Local 1553 union steward, Spokane