Fischer Transition Team Reviewing Employees, Budget

Mayor-elect Greg Fischer's transition team is preparing its review of high-level city employees to decide who will stay in the new administration.Fischer said earlier this month that he will essentially ask all of the department heads to re-apply for their jobs. Last week, his team sent letters to those employees asking them for information, including their resumes. Fischer says he's not sure when any decisions will be made on who to retain."I'm not putting any kind of artificial deadline out there for that," he says. "The key is to have the right people in place. We've got a lot of good people with Metro Government right now, we'll be bringing in some fresh faces as well. So over the next month or so these kinds of deadlines will become much more clear."So far, Fischer has agreed to keep Police Chief Robert White on staff. Library director Craig Buthod says he's optimistic about his future as well. White and Buthod both applied for jobs elsewhere during the mayoral campaign. Fischer says some defectors can be expected."I have not heard any type of large-scale effort on that," he says. "On any transition, people are obviously considering different options for themselves."Fischer's transition team is also reviewing the city's finances. Fischer says he's not anticipating any surprises with the budget he takes office. Since the recession began, Mayor Jerry Abramson has had to make cuts or other adjustments to the budget early in the calendar year to match lower-than-predicted revenue. Fischer says so far, receipts appear to be in line with predictions."We've got four sub-teams with the transition. One of them is finance and budget," he says. "So we're just taking a deep look at all that and things seem to be stable, so that's good, but that will be an ongoing process of discovery."A spokesperson for the mayor's office says the budget predictions can change month-to-month. While it's too early to say no cuts will be necessary, a shortfall has not been predicted.Fischer will take office on January 3rd.