San Gabriel Valley : HIRING FREEZE
The Pasadena City Council froze as many as 100 positions so it could open the Blair High School pool for the summer, add an anti-gang program and offer more summer jobs to young people.
The new programs were added to the city’s $114-million budget, which was passed last week. In addition to a hiring freeze, the council voted to dip into reserves in order to balance the budget.
City Manager Philip A. Hawkey said that the city staff is overworked because of unfilled spots. More than 100 positions of about 1,800 in the city are unfilled, including the city’s fire and police chiefs, as well as directors of its finance and affirmative action departments.
The council left it up to Hawkey to come up with a list of what positions must be filled. Not included among the frozen jobs will be six new police officers, to be partly funded by the federal crime bill.
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