ORANGE : City Layoffs Possible if Furloughs End

Up to 80 full-time city employees could be laid off this summer if the City Council decides to end a furlough program under which nearly 400 workers took reduced hours and a 10% pay cut.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to order City Manager Ron Thompson to draw up a plan for possible staff cuts and reorganization of city departments to save the more than $1 million necessary to end the furlough program by July, when the new fiscal year starts.

“We need to target specific services and programs for elimination,” said Councilman William G. Steiner. “There’s a great reluctance for the public sector to resort to layoffs, but the reality is we will be using $5 million in reserves to get through the next two years.”

Steiner, who proposed ending the furlough, did not specify how many employees he would agree to lay off, but Thompson doubted that the furlough could be ended without a 10% reduction in the city’s 800-member work force.

In January, a community budget committee chaired by Chapman University economics professor Lynn Doti recommended that the city, in an effort to close an expected $9.1-million deficit for fiscal year 1993-1994, extend the furlough for its employees through June, 1994.

The decision to study an end to the furloughs comes a week after the city released a report criticizing the furlough for causing longer waits for residents needing city services. Also cited in the report were higher workloads and declining morale among city staff members.