NEWPORT BEACH : 2 Employee Groups Blast Budget Plan

Two of the city’s six employee groups on Wednesday issued a scathing critique of the city’s budget proposal, blasting the city manager for laying off workers instead of hitting support services and managers harder.

In a six-page memo to the City Council filled with specifics, the employees pick at the perks top managers get, fuss over computer costs, data processing services and legal expenses, and complain about impending layoffs and early retirement programs.

“We were asked to help out on the budget; we’re doing it,” said Jimmy Larsen, president of the Newport Beach City Employees Assn., which represents 100 clerical workers. “There’s a lot of fallacies in the budget there right now. They’ve got the layoffs and the golden handshake and things like this. I don’t think they’ve really dug down deep.”

Bracing for a slashed state budget, the city plans to cut 61 positions through attrition, early retirement, reorganization and layoffs.

Signing the memo along with Larsen is Jim McAfee, president of the Employees League, which represents about 250 blue-collar workers who are working without a contract.

“We can reliably inform you that morale, and therefore productivity, are at their all-time low,” the employee groups write.

The memo lists 29 categories of complaints, accuses council members of rubber-stamping the city manager’s proposed budget without careful review, and criticizes the health-care benefits council members receive while other part-time employees get none.

City Manager Kevin J. Murphy said he is “not worried” about the criticisms.

“We obviously have a difference of opinion,” Murphy said. “I don’t really see anything in here that I haven’t heard before. . . . They’re missing the point.”