Union Assails Irvine Decision to Lay Off Three Employees : Government: The City Council’s 3-2 vote to save funds is criticized as unneeded action that will tear at morale.

The Irvine City Council voted this week to lay off three employees as a way to set more money aside in case the recession worsens or the city is hit with unforeseen expenses.

One of the city’s three employee unions immediately criticized the council’s 3-2 decision as an unneeded action that will tear at employee morale.

“It’s going to have a wider impact than three city employees,” said Eric Tolles, president of the Irvine Professional Employees Assn. Tolles said staff morale will drop because co-workers will lose their jobs. In addition, he said, rules that allow a potentially laid-off employee to “bump” a lower-ranking employee by taking his or her job will send pink slips cascading down the ranks.

Tolles criticized the layoffs on grounds that the action will not keep more police officers on the street or improve city services but was done only to keep an extra $200,000 in the bank.

The council voted Tuesday night to eliminate Irvine’s manager of advanced transportation systems, a building inspector and a building plan checker to save $197,000 a year. Those are the positions the city could lose and have the least impact, City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. said.

Layoff notices could go out within a week, Brady said. The actual layoffs might take several months, though, as employees use their “bumping” rights to take a lower position. If an employee steps to a lower position rather than face layoff, managers must then rank a new set of employees to identify the one to be laid off, he said.

Brady had urged the council not to lay off employees. The city could maintain financial health with $5.8 million in the emergency reserve fund rather than a full $6 million initially called for in the budget, he said.

But Councilman Bill Vardoulis said he wants the city’s reserve fund boosted to a full $6 million and suggested the layoffs. Councilmen William A. (Art) Bloomer and Barry J. Hammond sided with Vardoulis.

Bloomer said he supported the layoffs to keep the city from spending more than it will be taking in and from having to dip into the reserve fund.

Opposing the layoffs were Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan and Councilwoman Paula Werner.

Werner called the layoff decision “a vote of no confidence” for Brady and his financial managers, since they recommended against layoffs.

She also said if the three councilmen wanted to lay off employees, they should have waited until October when an examination of the city’s work force is expected to be complete. The examination is intended to recommend changes to the city’s management structure.

“What they did was create poor morale in the city work force,” Werner said.