The City of Long Beach will lay off 25 full-time workers and 42 part-time employees from various departments, including fire, public works, and transportation, and will also removed 69 "inactive" employees from its books in the coming days.
The layoffs are projected to save the city $2.58 million in an effort to close a $10.2 budget deficit by June, the end of the current fiscal year, and the city also needs givebacks from the unions as it will require $7 million in personnel savings toward that end, according Newsday.
City Manager Jack Schnirman said:
Find out what's happening in Long Beachfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"Our staffing analysis has concluded that the level of personnel in the city is unsustainable. And after working with our labor partners over a period of weeks, we have concluded that there are not enough concessions possible to avoid reducing the city's staffing levels."
Patch was unable to reach John Mooney, president of Long Beach's Civil Service Employees Association union, for comment Tuesday morning.
Find out what's happening in Long Beachfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Late last week, Schnirman met with all exempt management employees in an effort to have them agree to pay a portion of their health care costs starting in the new budget year on July 1, according to the city’s website. A resolution on Tuesday’s agenda calls on exempt employees to be responsible for 10 percent of their annual health care premiums.
"In light of the current fiscal crisis and in an effort to restore savings and balance to the city’s budget, management/exempt employees will be responsible for 10% of their annual health care premiums beginning July 1, 2012,” reads a legislative memo to the resolution.
The city has not announced any layoffs in the police department. Kenny Apple, president of Long Beach Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said the police department has sustained six retirements over the past year and the city has not given the PBA any indication that they would be replaced.
“The PBA firmly believes that any further reduction of the force utilizing layoffs would be entirely inappropriate and has the potential to jeopardize the level of services and safety currently dedicated to the citizens of Long Beach,” Apple told Patch.
The details of the staff reductions will be presented at Tuesday’s budget presentation and public hearing at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
* This story was updated at 10:20 a.m. on 5.15.12.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
