NEWPORT BEACH : City May Lay Off Up to 60 Workers

To balance a budget weighed down by a projected $6-million shortfall, City Manager Kevin J. Murphy said Monday that the city may have to lay off 50 to 60 employees by July 1.

City officials last week met with several municipal employee associations to present a preliminary budget that takes the projected layoffs into account. Directors of the city’s 15 departments have begun meeting with employees whose jobs may be in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, officials are formulating a layoff policy and a retirement package that will be voted on by the council before the staff cuts are made.

“We have never been through this to any great extent before,” said Dennis Danner, finance director.

“We have met with many potentially affected employees, but it is hard when you have no layoff policy, no golden handshake and don’t really have a budget yet.”

In the last several months, city officials have been preparing for vast reductions in the 750-person city staff. The cuts will be included in the fiscal 1993-94 budget. It will be a sharp contrast to last year when the city laid off just 12 part-timers as part of a $4-million reduction, and some of those were later rehired.

For the coming year, each city director submitted two budgets, one that cut 5% and one cutting 10%. To provide a cushion for agencies that provide public safety--such as police, fire and marine safety--other city departments will take a larger cut.

“To contemplate reductions in safety,” Murphy said. “You have to make reductions that hurt in the other departments.”

To that end, an early-retirement plan was approved in concept by the City Council in closed session on March 8. The council also gave Murphy authority to meet and confer with employee groups on the specifics of a layoff policy, such as the order of layoffs, severance pay and reorganization of jobs.

The early-retirement package, which has yet to be made public, will be offered this week to about 30 employees whose jobs can be eliminated or combined with others.

In the Police Department, for example, acting Chief Jim Jacobs said he anticipates cutting 11 positions to help save $901,000 for the 1993-94 fiscal year. That translates to one captain, one sergeant, six officers and three community service personnel.

“We think the positions we have can be eliminated and we can still maintain the level of service,” Jacobs said. The positions targeted are in the area of record-keeping and front desk personnel, where “the public won’t notice,” he said.

Jacobs said he is “modestly optimistic” that the police reductions can be made by attrition and combining positions.

Murphy is collecting reactions from employees and will be meeting with the department directors in the next two weeks to solidify some of the reductions for recommendation to the council.

The council is scheduled to vote on the budget proposal at its April 21 meeting.