Politics & Government

[UPDATE] Council-Approved City Budget Trims Excess 'Fat'

City officials say the employee layoffs recommended in the 2011-2012 budget were last resorts as the city attempts to bridge a $700,000 expenditure gap.

Glendora Mayor Doug Tessitor used graphic imagery to describe the city’s 2011-2012 budget Tuesday.

"We have trimmed the fat, cut through the muscle and now, unfortunately, we will need to amputate,” said Tessitor, referring to

The City Council unanimously approved the city’s $22.6 million budget during Tuesday's City Council meeting. Line items such as funds for travel and training, newsletter printing and a portion of funding for events such as Earth Day will be eliminated. However,  the reductions include deep cuts within seven city departments, including four full-time layoffs in the Finance, Police and Public Works departments, as well as a layoff of another full-time Police Department position to be replaced with part-time staffing. The budget also includes layoffs to part-time staff in the Community Services Department.

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The Glendora Public Library will lose its Assistant Library Director position when its incumbent retires in September.

While library employees discussed working with less staff support to extend the hours to 45. The proposal is still three hours less than its current schedule. The Library Board will discuss the proposed 45-hour schedule at its next meeting Wednesday, June 29.

Find out what's happening in Glendorawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Other departments also did not go unscathed in budgetary cuts. The Planning Commission’s $12,000 stipend is being eliminated, a move Planning Commissioner Joseph Battaglia said he supported.

The Glendora Police Department will see three full-time positions either eliminated, laid off or reduced. 

“Quite frankly all of these cuts that are being proposed are painful,” said City manager Chris Jeffers. “They will be felt internally and potentially externally by our customers to some degree.”

Jeffers said the more than $700,000 expenditure gap had been created because of the city’s efforts for additional savings as a contingency of 1.5 percent of the budget, and preparations of the 2017 sunset of the redevelopment agency.

The city is depending on negotiations with city labor groups to bridge the remainder of the expenditure gap.

Although layoff notices will be authorized on August 31, Jeffers said early retirement incentives may allow the city to rescind the layoffs.

However, as the budget currently stands, the recommended reductions approved by the council were regarded as difficult, but necessary decisions.

“This budget deficit is real,” said Mayor Pro Tem Gene Murabito. “The sooner we deal with it, the better off we’ll be.”

*Editor's Note: As clarification, library employees have agreed to work with less staff support to extend library hours from 40 to 45 hours a week, not through a reduction of salary as previously reported, according to Director Robin Weed-Brown. The Library Board of Trustees will consider the proposal at its Wednesday, June 29 meeting at 4 p.m. in the .


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