Santa Ana : Proposed City Budget Will Eliminate 20 Jobs

A 1986-87 city budget that eliminates 20 jobs, most of them management positions, and beefs up police and fire departments will go to the City Council for a final vote Monday.

At least five people will be out of jobs, although City Manager David Ream pointed out that some, such as executive director of communications and marketing Laurie Cottrell, were offered other positions but chose instead to resign.

Cottrell’s department is to be eliminated, and Channel 3, the city’s cable television station, will be transferred to the Recreation and Community Services Agency.

Three employees of the Neighborhood Improvement Program have been laid off, along with public information officer Don Norman. Norman’s position has been taken over by former staff assistant/writer Anne Amoury, whose old job title is among the cuts.

In addition, a business safety program and two assistants to the council proposed by former City Manager Robert C. Bobb will not be established. The Intergovernmental Relations Office will be eliminated along with a special projects division and the Downtown Development Commission.

Five special events--the Ambassador’s Ball, the Great American Talk Festival, the Summer Concert Series, the Wine and Harvest Festival and the Mayor’s Cup Golf Tournament--will no longer be funded under the proposed budget.

Twenty-four new positions will be added to the Police and Fire departments.

Ten police officers and four sergeants will be added, with the intent of using them to continue an anti-narcotics and gang-control program begun last year. The program had thus far used officers taken off other beats.

In addition, two community service officers will be hired, as well as a forensic specialist, who will work on the new Cal-ID computerized fingerprinting program. A park ranger, who actually will fall under the Recreation and Community Services Agency, will also be hired.

The Fire Department will get three new hazardous material inspectors to handle a newly approved program to document and categorize all toxic substances in city businesses. Three clerks also will be hired.