“Changes are afoot in City Hall as recent cuts are slowly beginning to be felt.The ins and outs of the City of Oak Harbor’s round of layoffs announced over two weeks ago still haven’t been finalized. Meanwhile, a restructuring of city departments is tentatively underway as Mayor Patty Cohen begins her process of picking a new city supervisor.The city finally released the names Tuesday of the four employees who were laid off earlier this month. City Attorney Phil Bleyhl said those let go include fire department secretary Kathy Gifford and police department clerk Rebecca Logsdon.Bleyhl said there has been some wrinkles in the city’s plans to lay off long-time Building Department Supervisor Jim Koepke and Police Administrator Jan Nolans. He said the city administration had hoped that both of them would be able to retire, but some questions about age requirements have popped up.At this point, Bleyhl says the dates of the layoffs are not certain for either.According to Bleyhl, the city administration did not choose individuals for layoffs, but their positions. And it wasn’t easy. There were no good choices, he said.The layoffs were prompted by the city’s budget deficit of $400,000. The city lost the giant chunk of funding from the state after the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax was dissolved in accordance with the 1999 Initiative 695. Then last December, the city council members allowed a utility tax to expire and refused to raise any other taxes beyond the inflation index.The layoffs aren’t the only budget cuts and savings Cohen is making. In fact, staffing is super-tight all over. She decided not to replace either the planning department secretary or a night-shift firefighter, both of which are currently unfilled.Cohen fired the city’s human resource director last year and doesn’t expect to replace him. Krista Janes-Blackburn, the city’s economic development coordinator, now doubles as Cohen’s administrative assistant.Bleyhl said a city planner and a city engineer recently quit, but they won’t be replaced for awhile – if ever. The planning, engineering and building departments are being rolled into one user-friendly department called Permitting and Development Services. Both City Planner Tom Burdett and City Engineer Ryan Goodman will lose their jobs, as their positions are being replaced with a single Permitting and Development Services director position. The new position will be advertised and both Burdett and Goodman can apply.The current plan, according to Bleyhl, is to upgrade the empty planning and engineering positions to senior planner and senior engineer and offer them to Goodman and Burdett if one or both men don’t get the new director position. The final shape of the new, consolidated department hasn’t been decided yet. The city administrators are in the process of analyzing possibilities and have even hired a consultant to make recommendations. It will likely be three months or so until the changes are made.The police department is down a police officer, but the position is currently being advertised. The city also lost its contract prosecutor – who handles about 240 cases a year for the city – because he moved away. Bleyhl says he will eventually have to replace him, but he’s going to hold off as long as possible to save money.City Planner Doug Merriman has saved the city tens of thousands of dollars over the last year by doubling as the interim city supervisor. But that will end in the next month or so.Cohen is running an assessment center in early February to help her choose the city’s next $105,000-a-year supervisor from among eight candidates. The assessment will involve a rigorous interview process with a group of volunteer municipal administrators from neighboring communities. “