Two Managers Among Latest Knott’s Layoffs : Cutbacks: The move, the company’s second major management purge in 1993, also involves about twelve employees in lower positions.

In its second major management purge this year, Knott’s Berry Farm has laid off its Vice President and General Manager Karen H. Yoshikawa, Bill Dayton, the vice president for marketing, and about a dozen others in lower positions.

The company said the action was taken to thin its ranks, and that the management positions would be consolidated.

Yoshikawa had served as general manager since last year, after having worked her way up through the ranks managing the theme park’s retail operations. She had been with Knott’s Berry Farm since 1982, and before that spent seven years with Six Flags Corp.

Dayton joined Knott’s within the past couple of years and was the engineer of a strategy to market the Buena Park attraction to a more local market, rather than throughout Southern California. He was previously a marketing executive at the Tropicana Hotel, which he promoted with the popular “Island of Las Vegas” ad campaign.

Knott’s spokesman Bob Ochsner on Tuesday said the park has been drawing well lately, although at least one knowledgeable park observer has heard that attendance is down.

Last year, Knott’s was ranked as the fifth most popular park in the nation, with 3.9 million in attendance, by Amusement Business Magazine, a trade journal. Knott’s is Orange County’s 13th largest employer, with about 3,500 workers.

The layoffs come as the operation looks to reduce positions after the successful launch of Knott’s Camp Snoopy in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., and the opening of three Mrs. Knott’s Family Restaurants, Ochsner said.

“We’re looking down the road at 1994. If its going to be a recessionary situation, we have to strengthen ourselves now,” said Ochsner.

In January, Knott’s dismissed its executive vice president, human resources director, controller and the park’s longtime spokesman, along with about 20 others. Dayton, who was suddenly cast into the role of spokesman at the time, explained that the cutbacks were because of economic reasons.