City of Monterey announces plans to layoff dozens of employees

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) The streets may be quiet, but City of Monterey facilities have been even quieter. Several have been closed since March 14 and the city said they are now left with no option but to scale back.

"To hear that potentially dozens of them could be losing their positions with the city, it's definitely one of the toughest days in my career," said Ryan Heron with the United Public Employees of California, Local 792.

The city is looking to cut 107 positions, which would impact as many as 84 employees. They have not released a final list of employees that could be affected, but city manager, Hans Uslar, said they are looking at facilities that have been closed for quite some time now.

"The library has to be closed, conference center and recreation center. All of the employees that are assigned to those various functions at the City of Monterey really have no one that is demanding their services," said Uslar.

The city is anticipating a significant financial loss from the pandemic. They are expecting to lose $10 million for the city's general fund. They said this equals 12% of the city's yearly budget.

"What's absolutely imperative to note is that we will not be cutting back in the public safety area. We will not be laying off police officers, firefighters or certain employees who are working as first responders in public works," said Uslar.

While the city said they plan to bring back employees when they can, the union representing them plans to help affected workers through the process.

"We want to make sure that they're not putting people off into the street on unemployment without exploring every other alternative to save money or redirect work elsewhere," said Heron.

The city plans to present a final list of positions they wish to cut to the city council on Tuesday, April 21. If the city council were to approve it, the lay offs would go into effect on Monday, June 1.