A grassroots group of South Portland residents plans to rally at City Hall on April 6 to protest the layoffs of five veteran city workers and the closing of the library’s popular teen resource room.

Organizer Angela Griffiths said protesters also plan to attend the April 6 South Portland City Council meeting to call for leaders to take the following actions:

• Conduct an outside review examining the methods used to make the layoffs;

• Seek public and city staff input to find alternative ways to cut spending;

• Reinstate the five jobs that were eliminated;

• Restore services impacted by the cuts, which include re-opening the teen resource room.

“We’re seeking truth, transparency and accountability,” said Griffiths, a longtime resident. “The layoffs were conducted in a vacuum without input or collaboration.”

Griffiths and fellow organizers Camilla Whitehead and Vicky Smith sent out an e-mail last week to dozens of South Portland residents urging them to turn out for the rally and also to contact their city councilor.

“Outraged by the recent layoffs of five valued municipal employees and the egregious conduct of management?” the letter asks.

“It’s time to speak out for better communication with our City Council and Leadership. Let’s unite together to face this economic hard time in creative and positive ways.”

The letter alleges “poor communication, lack of collaboration, and abuse of power among some of the departments where the layoffs occurred…

“No departments or employee groups were prepared for these layoffs and none have been consulted about plans for managing the work load since the layoffs,” the letter states.

Griffiths said she has heard from at least 50 residents since the “call-to-action” letter was e-mailed last week, and that phone calls and e-mails keep coming in.

The City Council has not issued a formal response to the concerns it has received from residents about the layoffs of longtime workers, some of whom managed popular city services. It is unclear whether one is forthcoming.

Mayor Tom Blake said Monday he believes the Council cannot do much, if anything, to reverse City Manager Jim Gailey’s decision to make the cuts to avoid a budget shortfall next fiscal year.

“This is an administration issue. The Charter clearly prohibits our involvement,” Blake said in an e-mail.

“Our revenues continue to drop and our expenses continue to increase. Now we can instruct Administration to put money back into the budget, but the layoffs helped fill a $283,000 gap, every year,” Blake wrote. “The buyouts prevented a greater number of layoffs.”

The employees who lost their jobs are:

• Deb Smith, operations manager at the Recreation Department, after 28 years;

• Pam St. John, personnel assistant, 28 years;

• Rita Nappi, librarian, 20 years;

• Monica Dubay, library clerk, at least 15 years.

• Dave Gaudet, operations manager at Public Works, 41 years.

Meanwhile, Councilor Jim Soule has emerged as the sole Councilor to publicly call for the council to review how Gailey made the layoffs and to grant exit interviews to the dismissed workers.

Some of the laid-off workers, including Deb Smith, who ran the community center, say they feel their jobs were targeted because of disputes they had with the city’s top leaders.

She was expected to make public a report this week she was preparing for Gailey and Blake about events that led up to her layoff.

Smith, who said she is consulting with an attorney, promised to release the report to the press, after she handed it over to city officials.

“Deb is convinced that her job was eliminated not for just financial reasons,” said former City Councilor David Jacobs, who had tried to arrange an exit interview with Gailey, on behalf of Smith.

Soule warned Monday that the Council should grant all the laid-off workers exit interviews or risk lawsuits that “will cost the city more to settle… than what we saved by the layoffs.”

The Council so far has declined to respond Soule’s request, first made at the March 16 Council meeting. On Monday, Soule turned up the heat in a newspaper interview.

“I’m beside myself as to why my fellow councilors, who have discussed the importance of being proactive to avoid lawsuits, are just ignoring this freight train rolling down the tracks,” Soule said.

But Gailey indicated strongly Monday that he does not plan to revisit the jobs cuts he made.

“The city has under the personnel policy recall rights. If positions open up with the city, the affected employees have the right to apply for the opened positions,” he said.

Gailey seems to have the support of Blake and several other councilors, including Linda Boudreau and Maxine Beecher.

When asked Monday if the Council would consider exit interviews, Blake replied: “All the laid off employees have been sent a package that contains a letter of recommendation from the city, a letter explaining insurance benefits and a request to put anything in writing that they desire, including their thoughts on the layoff process.”

The Council also balked at pressing for a review of Gailey’s actions in executive session, a move that Soule raised but failed to win support from fellow members.

The Council has direct oversight of Gailey, though it does not involve itself in the day-to-day operations of the city.

Gailey and the Council also have chosen so far not to respond to complaints and questions from residents raised at City Council meetings, since the layoffs were announced Feb. 24.

They include a petition signed by 65 students urging the city to rehire Nappi, who managed the Young Adult Resource Room.

The City Council has a stated policy that it responds to concerns raised by residents during the public comment period.

“A response has not been issued,” Gailey said in an e-mail. He indicated that Library Director Kevin Davis tried to reach some of the residents who complained about the library cuts.

Likewise, Blake said: “The Council has not issued a response.” But he did not elaborate.

Gailey has maintained the cuts were made for strictly financial reasons. But he said Monday that he is open to looking at the process for making job cuts in the future.

The laid-off employees were ordered to leave the workplace immediately after being notified that their jobs were being eliminated.

“I am 100 percent committed to looking back and analyzing the process and determine whether the process that unfolded is the best for the city,” Gailey said.

“The process is a common way to handle layoffs, but is it the best way? If parts of the process were not in the best interest of the city, then I need to look at ways of making it better.”

Gailey added that he does not anticipate more job cuts in the future. But, he said: “If there is a next time, I will have this experience to look back at and act accordingly.”