LA to Layoff 669 Workers

The employment prospects for civil servants in the state of California are getting to be downright grim. After a series of hits at all levels, and to most areas of the state and county budgets, things are getting worse. This time the cuts are coming to workers employed by the city of Los Angeles and it is set to impact city workers not only with a high level of job cuts, but with benefit cuts to those who will remain as well. You may be wondering exactly how bad the job cuts could be? Well settle in, because it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

The new proposal made by the city major, Antonio Villaraigosa, is getting ready to cut loose 669 workers from the city payroll. According to the current estimates only about 231 of those jobs lost are expected to come from traditional layoffs. Other methods, such as attrition and the non-renewal of contracts for some workers. So even though the 231 number sounds much more reasonable it is likely not to by the only number of people actually put out of a job. In addition the city hopes to raise the retirement age to 67, cut down on the size of the pension for newer city workers and generally shrink services offered by the city.

All of these cuts are designed to help the city shore up a major hole in the coming fiscal years budget. The city is currently staring down the barrel of about $238 million in deficit.
While the plan will maintain all of the current police officers it will make significant cuts to their civilian support. It will also, believe it or not, add jobs to the fire department and add some money to the city’s reserve fund. Yes, you read that right the city is choosing to let money sit in the bank while they get rid of workers.

The major is also fronting some cash for a public works program that he hopes will improve the city for all of the people. The city has set aside money in the budget to fill in about 50,000 potholes in the city.  So again, just to be clear the plan, thus far, is no on jobs, yes on savings and yes on potholes. It all kind of makes you wonder how pitted LA’s streets could actually be that this is one of their primary concerns?

The final vote on this budget has not been made yet, and the city council may choose to make changes to the plan before they approve it and begin to send out layoff notices.  These are only the latest in some serious job cuts made in the civil service workers in the state in recent weeks. 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 more job cuts will be coming to the state of California. This time 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.”