ANAHEIM : 187 City Workers Could Lose Posts

In what would be the largest job cut in its history, Anaheim is proposing to lay off up to 187 full-time employees and managers in an effort to balance its budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

City officials, meeting Monday to outline the forthcoming budget and its effects on employees, said they plan to bring the issue before the City Council in closed session in two weeks. The council must approve any employee cuts.

“This, by far, is absolutely the worst-possible case scenario,” said Ken Stone, director of the city’s program development and audit department, about the estimate. “We don’t want to set fear and panic.”

The jobs to be eliminated may not be currently held because 132 city positions have remained unfilled since a hiring freeze went into effect last September. The city could end up dismissing just a few dozen employees but still save money by eliminating vacant posts from the budget.

The lowest sales-tax revenues in a decade and less-than-expected transient-occupancy taxes left the city with a projected budget shortfall of just over $20 million for the coming fiscal year.

City officials have outlined two plans--one calling for city departments to cut personnel by 5% and another calling for a 10% cut.

Under the first proposal, departments would cut 43 full-time positions and about 60 part-time posts, in addition to cuts in capital expenditures and operating costs. The cuts would save about $8 million for the coming fiscal year.

Under the second plan, departments would cut an additional 144 full-time posts and more than 100 part-time positions to save slightly more than $14 million.

City officials say that police and fire services have been spared personnel cuts under the initial plan, and may be spared cuts under the more severe plan if the council chooses that option.

Last fall, the city initiated reductions in all general-fund departments, trimming $5.5 million from the current budget, mostly by eliminating capital projects and cutting day-to-day operating costs.

The city still fell $5 million short for the current fiscal year and was forced to borrow from city reserves.

Sharon Ericson, president of the Anaheim Municipal Employees Assn., said she is concerned that the city’s largest union, which represents 800 workers, would be hit hardest by the proposed budget cuts.

“I would really hold the City Council responsible,” Ericson said. “They just can’t spend the money they spend without getting in trouble, and it looks like we’re there.”