The city of Chattanooga has 190 fewer employees this year than last, said Dan Johnson, chief of staff for Mayor Ron Littlefield.
"We were doing some meat cutting," Mr. Johnson said Monday.
City officials said more than a month ago that there were 40 more employees this year than last. Mr. Johnson said Monday there had been 43 "new" positions created with 30 more people coming from a fire academy training class and 10 members of the city attorney's office moving into full-time positions.
There also were additional spots created for the city's Water Quality program and the Office of Sustainability, he said. But because of attrition, there are still more vacancies, he said.
He said the city never had enacted a hiring freeze, but a vacancy review committee that meets weekly goes over whether positions should be left unfilled when they come open.
Councilman Jack Benson said Monday that the new positions created seemed justifiable. But he also said he hoped the overall reduction did not hurt the quality of services to the city.
He said he wished the information provided to the public last week had been more correct.
"It's regrettable that the information wasn't forthcoming from our own sources," he said.
Council Chairman Manny Rico said it was shocking to him when he heard there could be more employees this year than last because of the city's budget restraints.
He said he has heard all departments saying they were doing more with less.
"I can see where there's less," he said.
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