More Job Cuts to California Civil Servants

It looks like more job cuts will be coming to the state of California. TIme tim it is the city of Downey, California. The city is getting rid of 13 of its workers in order to make ends meet.  Unlike previous layoffs in the state this one comes with a stunning amount of information as the city has released an amazingly detailed amount of data about the layoffs. Here is the press release in its entirety:

“Downey, CA, April 13, 2012: The tough economy and compounding labor costs have led to a projected budget deficit for Fiscal Year 2012-13 that is significantly higher than this year’s $4.2 million deficit, forcing the layoff of additional City of Downey employees.

Approximately 13 full-time employees received layoff notices, which will become effective when the current fiscal year ends on June 30, 2012. The severity of the situation forced the City to take action without the involvement of the community and bargaining units, but explained Mayor Roger C. Brossmer, “We’re meeting with staff and bargaining units to try to maintain City service levels and fiscal health while protecting against future job losses, and we’re asking for patience while we work through these changes.”

City officials have implemented several cost-containment measures, including: 
- placing a moratorium on procuring non-essential purchases across all funds
- implementing a 5% operational cut across every department in January
- management is continuing to solicit employee input on cost-saving or revenue-generating ideas, “It was agonizing to say goodbye to several talented, long-term employees as a result of the loss of Redevelopment funding and we thought it would stop the bleeding,” said David R. Gafin, who serves on the City’s Budget Subcommittee, “but this budget deficit is just too big to cover through reserves alone.”

The City’s Human Resources Division is working with the individuals impacted by the layoffs. Some of those who received notices may be able to exercise seniority “bumping” rights, which will be handled through Human Resources.”

Of course these neither the first, nor the most devastating cuts to come to the civil servants in California. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all:

“It looks like things are getting much, much worse for the schoolteachers in the state of California. We have been talking a lot, in the last couple of weeks and months about the kinds of cuts that are being made to the schools in the state. In a lot of cases those cuts are being made in generic terms we know how many workers are going to be let go, but we do not know how many of them will be classroom teachers. Today we had some light shed on those numbers.

According to information released by the California Teachers Association an estimated 19,500 classroom teachers were given layoff notices over the past couple of weeks. The layoff notices had to be given by the 15th of March in order to be legal under the laws of the state of California. So if an educator did not get a layoff notice by that date then they are free and clear, at least until next years deadline.

The cuts, which are coming because of the need to cut 20 Billion in funding from the state education budget. Unless the schools get a tax increase from voters in the near future, which is on the ballet, the schools will have to make these cuts, which average out to about $370 per student in the state. The only good news for schools is that the number of enrolled students at California schools is, depending on where you live, either staying stable or shrinking.”