City of Culver City Issues Layoff Notices

The City of Culver City announced Thursday morning that it was forced to issue layoff notices to 14 full time employees on Wednesday as a result of the “severe financial impact on the City from the State of California’s dissolution of redevelopment agencies throughout the State.”

According to a statement by the City, the abolition of the Redevelopment Agency on Feb. 1 has added $6 to $8 million to the projected $3 million deficit for the City’s fiscal year ending June 30, 2012.

The 14 affected employees will either be offered positions in other departments or the opportunity to take a severance payment of up to 12 weeks of paid leave based upon years of service with the City.

“The fiscal realities facing the City have prompted me to issue these layoff notices,” City Manager John Nachbar stated in a release. “The City Council, City employees and the City’s six bargaining units have worked over the past year to reach labor agreements that lower costs to the City in the long term. However, all of the progress made at the local level to reduce costs by millions of dollars annually has been erased by the State’s action to eliminate redevelopment.”

Nachbar said that once the former RDA positions are eliminated, they would save the City’s General Fund approximately $2.3 million annually.

Nachbar will present the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year at the May 7 City Council meeting, which he said will include the elimination of “more than 20 positions,” (Editor's note: According to City Staff that number includes the 14 RDA-funded positions), but added that even those measures will still not address the City’s remaining multi-million dollar operational deficit.

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