Friday Last Day For Nearly 100 Employees In Santa Cruz County

Employees at Santa Cruz County are getting ready for the mass layoffs that will take effect on Friday. About 100 employees in the county, spread across varying departments, will be pink slipped.

The county is citing declining revenues as the reason for the cuts, which will occur in just about ever department.

Personnel officials in Santa Cruz County are doing their best to transfer affected employees to different county positions, or at the very least, find them part-time work.

Chief probation officer Scott MacDonald, who has lost four employees in his department already this year, hopes to find grant money, which could save three out of the four positions that were cut.

Macdonald said that due to retirement vacancies, some positions would not be laid off. “At this point, we have given out four layoff notices and we are going to extend three of the four positions for a couple of months and we are hoping to do that with grants,” he said.

Local officials are awaiting governor Schwarzenegger’s approved state budget, hoping that it doesn’t spell out more layoffs for the county.