DECC Exec. Dir. Addresses Job Cuts At Struggling Entertainment Venue
DULUTH, Minn.– DECC Exec. Dir. Dan Hartman found himself in the spotlight Thursday after news broke Wednesday night that he was cutting DECC expenses in the hundreds of thousands, including layoffs and eliminating positions.
“So, the DECC has been definitely between a rock and a hard place. I think I talked about this with the City Council a couple weeks ago. And I think that’s kind of what started the public conversation. But the board has been having this conversation for a while the market forces have really kind of changed the way the financial situation the DECC is in,” Hartman told FOX 21 Thursday.
Hartman allowed FOX 21 10 minutes to ask questions. He said when he asked the City Council for a million-dollar line of credit at its last meeting Sept. 25, he told councilors layoffs were on the table. “I feel like I’ve been as transparent as I could through the last month and a half.,” said Hartman. “We’ve been very transparent with the staff of the financial situation that we’re in. I had an hour-long deliberation with the Council on the Thursday agenda session where I they asked a wide range of questions that I felt like I tried my best to answer. I think we’ve been pretty upfront.”
Hartman acknowledged much of the public was surprised by the news. “After the layoff happened, I think and there’s a good debate that we should have had a press conference after that, but I’ll be honest, I was definitely the moment of thinking about these employees and thinking about the rest of my staff who’s still here and the people that were like.”
Hartman said he’s hopeful he won’t need the $1 million line of credit, on top of the cuts. “At this point, I am hoping we won’t. I think I had more of a fear of it in September. I think things are looking good. We had some checks that we are looking for from July from some big events that have arrived. And so I think we’re we might actually be able to skate by without using the loan right now, because the loan was more of a cash flow issue, not an operational issue.”
Hartman defended his actions and how he handled the situation, saying he had little choice. “What other option is there? I think for just being a rock and hard place, and I made some really difficult decisions last week that were personally really hard on me. And these are people that I knew personally really well. And these are some of them were people who followed me from past employment. I mean, this was not an easy time. And I wish that we had a different situation,” said Hartman.
