Posted: January 16, 2009 22:55:33 PST
Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike announced Friday (Jan. 16) that, due to the dramatic slowdown in local construction activities, five city employees funded by permit fees have been notified that their jobs will end in mid-February.
"These are very difficult decisions to make and implement," Pike said. "Our actions affect people and families, today and in their future. They affect the morale and the workload of the employees who remain."
"I am committed to working closely with my executive team and the City Council to make sure that we look long and hard to minimize the number of employees whose lives are changed as we meet the challenges of our declining revenues and provide citizens with quality services," he said.
The layoff announcement comes on the heels of the Mayor's announcement Thursday (Jan. 15) that further budget reductions will be necessary to address declining city revenues in light of local and nationwide economic difficulties. Pike said a total of ten positions funded by city permit fees are affected, resulting in five full-time city employees losing their jobs. Three building inspectors, a plans examiner and a planner were notified Friday (Jan. 16) that their jobs will end. Of the 10 positions affected, some were vacant and some people holding affected positions are able to move into other vacant positions or be funded by other sources.
The positions affected all are associated with processing building permits and inspecting construction. Permit-related revenue, collected in the self-supporting "development services fund," is now projected to be about $800,000 less than anticipated for this year. If no action is taken, Pike said, the development services fund will run out of money by April.
Permit activity - the total number of permits issued and the amount of revenue received from permits - has been trending downward during the past four years, with sharp declines late last year. This trend is anticipated to continue in 2009 with the slowdown of the local and national economy.
Pike said the number of permit projects moving forward has decreased, so the number of people needed to process permits and inspect construction is being reduced. He noted that the number of people seeking information about permits before beginning their projects has not decreased, so customer service remains a need that is being staffed.
"Permit activity has been so slow we don't expect a noticeable difference in permit service delivery," he said. "If permit activity picks up, we will staff back up accordingly to process those permits and inspect those construction projects."
These new actions are in addition to eliminating three vacant positions in the Planning and Community Development Department as part of the 2009 budget. Thirteen positions were eliminated citywide from the 2009 City Budget when it was adopted by the Bellingham City Council in Dec. 2008. Other steps taken in the budget process to align planned expenditures with declining revenues included delaying dozens of capital projects, reducing or eliminating funding for various programs and reducing or eliminating funding to other service providers.
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Media Contact:
Mayor Dan Pike or David Webster, Chief Administrative Officer
778-8100
