The City of Monterey today announced plans to cut staff by 107 positions, potentially impacting as many as 84 active city employees. Officials say the cuts are a direct result of the economic crises caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic and sheltering orders.
Monterey city staff estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic will devastate the City’s General Fund revenues by approximately $10 million (or 12% of the City’s budget) through the remainder of fiscal year 2019/2020 (FY19/20). That $10M loss only represents the loss of revenue and other impacts from when the pandemic began to affect the City’s budget in March 2020 through the end of the fiscal year in June 2020.
The proposal is to reduce positions related to the closure of public facilities and implement other organizational changes to repair the City’s budget. This represents a reduction of 107 positions, including 23 vacancies and 84 active employees, which will provide the City with a total annual savings of $11.47 million and a corresponding monthly savings of $956,000.
Although the City currently has a fund for economic uncertainty (“rainy day fund”), the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 health and economic crises is highly unpredictable, and Monterey officials say keeping the economic uncertainty fund intact is critical to stave the City from insolvency and to maintain police, fire, and other critical public safety services.
