Long Beach to lay off 67 employees

The city intends to move forward with what is being called a “first round” of layoffs in the coming days, as officials contend with a projected $10.2 million deficit and attempt to craft a balanced budget for fiscal 2012-13.

The City Council is being asked to approve an $87.9 million spending plan that comes with a 4.1 percent tax levy increase and an 11.9 percent deficit-reduction “surcharge,” though city officials said they are confident that state lawmakers will approve legislation that will allow the city to reduce the surcharge by more than half and spread the payments out over 10 years.

But the city also needs to come up with $7 million in personnel savings to balance the budget, City Manager Jack Schnirman said.

Schnirman explained that although negotiations are continuing with the Civil Service Employees Association, the Long Beach Professional Firefighters Local 287 and the Long Beach Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, layoffs of 20 full-time CSEA employees and five firefighters hired last year are unavoidable because the previous administration did not budget for those positions.

“In the coming days, notices are going to go out to 25 full-time employees informing them that they will be included in this first wave [of layoffs],” Schnirman told the Herald on Monday. “It’s very clear that it’s impossible to realize the $7 million in savings without this first round of personnel reductions. We hope that our labor partners will work with us to identify concessions and savings to prevent or curtail the need for additional personnel reductions.”

Schnirman said that the layoffs would save the city $2.5 million annually beginning in fiscal 2012-13. The city is also cutting 42 part-time employees and removing 69 “inactive” part-time workers from the payroll, he added. The layoffs will affect a number of departments, he said, including public works, sanitation and beach maintenance. No Police Department layoffs have been announced.