The City of Monterey Park has announced the elimination of 24 positions in the city to be effective July 7, 2010. Of those, 19 are filled and the incumbents will receive layoff notices.

The City of Monterey Park, along with many employers across the country, has been struck by the recent downturn in the economy. As retail sales drop and businesses move out of the area, revenues coming into the City have dramatically dropped. As a result, the City implemented a hiring freeze, reduced expenditures to those critical and necessary, and approved a 2-year service credit option to encourage attrition. In addition to these actions, the City conducted 
extensive meet and confer negotiations with represented employee bargaining units in an attempt to negotiate salary concessions in an attempt to forestall laid-offs. Unfortunately, the employee bargaining units did not agree with these concessions.

The layoffs are expected to result in a salary and benefit reduction of $1,560,000 with $1,249,000 of that being General Fund

“It is with sincere regret that we take this action, but I am confident that remaining City employees will continue to work collaboratively and minimize any impact to the services and programs provided to our community,” said Interim City Manager Don McIntyre.