Rumblings of sweeping city department changes in Duluth have many city workers on edge wondering about their future.

Many workers feel like their jobs are up in the air.

Unfortunately, Communications Officer Jeff Papas said the earliest Mayor Ness will comment on any of these changes would be at the council meeting on Monday.

Mayor Ness has been out of town, attending the 2008 Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative in Toronto. Tiffany Tarrolly has more.

The ups and downs of the city budget are at the root of this situation.
Duluth is facing a severe budget crisis and Mayor Don Ness is looking for ways to trim costs.

Papas admits staff reorganizations will happen, but says Mayor Ness will be the one to share the details.

Many are concerned about their jobs and quite a few have taken their worries to their city councilors.

"The administration certainly has the right and responsibility to make organizational changes and I'm glad that they are doing that to become more efficient. But one of the draw–backs is once the word is out the employees of the city of Duluth their friends, family citizens, are kind of concerned about what's going on," said City Councilor Jim Stauber.

Stauber said even he doesn't know details of the Mayor's re–organization plan, and that, he said, is frustrating.

Papas says the Mayor wants to share the details of his plan as a whole but once the word got out, Stauber said city councilors should have been given some details.

"Because its better to know rather than to assume and it's just very unfortunate that it has grown to this and that the administration hasn't stepped in and said now hold on, this is what's actually going on," Stauber said.

No one is sure of what departments will be affected or how they will change.

Word in city hall is that job cuts are not expected, but some city employees may be shuffled into different positions or even different departments.

Watch the Northland's News Center as we will have further details as soon as they're available.