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GREENSBORO — Even those closest to the impending layoff in Guilford County can’t say when it will happen, though the prediction initially was for early this week.

“If they don’t do it this week, they might do it next week,” said Melvin “Skip” Alston, the Board of Commissioners chairman .

On March 17, Alston said he expected another round of county layoffs by early this week. By midday Tuesday there was no hint one was coming.

“We’re not on anyone’s time schedule,” Alston said.

Brenda Jones-Fox and human resources Director Sharisse Fuller are working on the cuts, Alston said, with help from himself and Vice Chairman Steve Arnold.

An earlier layoff, Alston and others said, was meant to help keep the county’s property tax rate down in 2009-10.

Few specifics on the layoff are available, including how many employees it could entail or if any departments are targeted.

Some county services affected by the 35 cuts last month included the economic and community development office, public health and the planning department.

Fox, who ultimately decides who’s laid off, has not returned multiple messages from the News & Record, including one left Tuesday.

When talking layoffs, Alston and some other commissioners have said that county government is too big, and they want to save taxpayers money.

“I’m trying to be as open as possible, and considering that I’m dealing with jobs and livelihoods,” Alston said.

On March 2, the News & Record asked Guilford County for documents, minutes and notes related to the reduction in force Feb. 23.

The county replied with a copy of its layoff policy and a sample worksheet to rank employees on longevity, cross-training and other factors. Three copies of e-mails were sent on retirement and vacation pay. No information about specific positions was provided.

Interim County Attorney Matt Mason said that any other information was withheld under state laws that protect government employee personnel files.

Commissioner Linda Shaw defended the layoffs, Arnold and Alston.

“We’re just trying to help the taxpayers out there by not raising their taxes,” Shaw said. “What is the big deal about doing away with positions that are not needed?”

Budget hearings that Fox called to determine the layoffs included Commissioners Arnold and Billy Yow.

Ashley Matlock Perkinson, an attorney with the N.C. Press Association, said that an argument could be made that a meeting involving the two commissioners should have been open to the public.

“It seems to me that this three-member team is a committee exercising a policy-making function.” The Open Meetings law provides that “each official meeting of a public body shall be open to the public, and any person is entitled to attend such a meeting,” she said.

Commissioners say the talks fall under personnel law and should be closed.

But Perkinson said she believes that general personnel policy issues are not necessarily exempted from the public meetings law.

 Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com