On Monday, Mayor Darrio Melton met with department heads and city employees to notify them of citywide layoffs that will go into effect on Nov. 5.

This has effected not only the employees, but their families as well as well, and this will also yield to a cutback in services the city will offer.

Melton said this decision was made after a budget passed by the city council did not account for an outstanding debt the city has.

This is a double-edged sword situation. A choice had to be made by the city to either make payroll or pay off debt.

Even after these layoffs, Melton has told multiple news outlets that they will not know until today if the city will be able to make payroll.

No matter who is to blame for this oversight, we hope that the city can bounce back from this.

We already are struggling enough as it is, and we literally cannot afford for anymore mistakes or oversights.

Action needs to be taken soon to address this issue. We also hope the city council meets soon to address this, and to not only figure what went wrong but to figure out how to fix the situation.