Second in a series
Re “Ewell — What He Found, What He Did About It”
[img]843|left|Interim City Manager Lamont Ewell||no_popup[/img]Given the vagaries of the national economy and Culver City’s $3 million budget deficit, Interim City Manager Lamont Ewell estimates it is “highly probable” that it will be necessary to shrink the City Hall workforce by 5 to 10 percent.
How soon will the downsizing begin?
“It depends,” Mr. Ewell said, “on the City Council’s view of the proposed budget, and whether they agree with the strategy.
“Ultimately, they make those final decisions. Assuming that they were in concert with everything, (the reductions) would begin as early as the first month of the new fiscal year, starting July 1.
“I want to emphasize something here. I have been talking to our workforce about the realities, and not just of the world economy.
“I have tried to help people by understanding the relationships between the global markets, the national markets, the state…
“In fact, I was sitting here writing notes about that. I just had a look at our fourth quarter numbers for 2009. (Revenue) was down about 6.5 percent compared to the prior year. So we are still seeing a softening of the market. In this quarter — we get our data well in arrears of when the period occurs — we believe we are seeing positive signs developing.
A Grim Picture
“For example, Westfield Mall having reopened, new product with new energy.
“We anticipate we will see improvements in some of the sales and use taxes.
“That is being eroded by the fact car dealers are not doing so well now.
“Restaurants seem to be doing fairly well. But that is just based on looking at the activity when I drive around during the day, and especially in the evenings I spend time looking around.
“One of the biggest challenges this economy will have for California is California itself. It still has high unemployment. Most cities throughout the state are downsizing. We probably will see more teachers and governmental employees being laid off, which will add to the unemployment rate.
“All of that will have a slow drag on the economy for California.
“We are being cautiously optimistic. I have asked Finance and others, as we prepare the proposed budget, to use conservative assumptions for growth going into the next fiscal year. I would rather be surprised on the upside than to have to go back to the Council and say we were much too aggressive and need to adjust our expectations.
“I am being very cautious, hoping to re-set the base of the organization, stabilize it over a two-year period, and then focus on rebuilding.”
(To be continued)
