The city has sent pink slips to 68 Houston Fire Department cadets, the first documented layoffs resulting from Mayor Sylvester Turner’s plan to implement Proposition B.
The trainees will remain employed through June 7, according to a copy of the layoff notice sent to cadets.
“The City of Houston has experienced a sizeable budget shortfall due to the implementation of Prop B,” the layoff notices read, referring to the charter admendent passed by voters last November. The measure requires the city to pay firefighters the same as police of corresponding rank and experience. Voters approved Prop B by a wide margin. The cadets’ firefighting careers had been in limbo after Turner declined to promote them following their graduation from training earlier this year. Turner had said he would not promote the cadets while the city was under a hiring freeze he imposed last September in anticipation of the vote on the Proposition B.