Public safety and parks hardest hit by potential layoffs

As we reported last week, more than 100 city employees have been notified that they could lose their jobs as soon as January due to budget cuts.

We’ve just obtained a list of the positions that are affected. Public safety has the most cutbacks by far.

Twenty police officer positions are on the chopping block, as well as three confinement officers, three police cadets, four police clerks, three reserve officers, four crime prevention specialists and two animal control officers.

Twelve firefighters positions are also facing elimination, plus one fire inspector and one firefighter paramedic.

Parks and Rec could also be hit hard. Six field attendants, five recreation specialists and four recreation coordinators are on the list of possible reductions.

The city is facing an estimated $20 million shortfall over the next two years. The mayor must present a balanced budget to the City Council by Nov. 1, 2010.

  1. And there goes Lynnwood – hell in a hand basket. Thanks, City Council. We won't forget who you a$$wipes are next election.

  2. So, PV, are you advocating higher taxes? It's got to be one or the other–unless, of course, you have some clear evidence of extensive waste. Or, maybe you believe that government runs on fairy dust.

  3. ahh waste, any one need a perfectly good swimming pool, only 26 mil, what a deal?

    Or any one need a 3.5 mil crosswalk over I-5?

    Any one need a fleet of new Police cars and an inflated police force?

  4. They're elected officials and as such it's up to you to fire them come the next election.

  5. Yes, it has to be one or the other. And to anybody who's worked in government, it is screamingly obvious that cuts to the overstaffed, full-of-dead-wood, blindingly incompetent ranks of city paper pushers is the way to go.

    No indeed, government doesn't run on fairy dust — it runs on the dollars extracted from taxpayers who in this day and age have little left to give.

    Welcome to the real world, civil servants! It's been too long in coming.

  6. I have to hand it to this Mike Murphy, he's doing a better job than the local “news media.”

    The most telling aspect of the list of targeted reductions is the lack of specificity. Is Lynnwood University slated for the axe, as it should be? Maybe, maybe not, but in any event it's hardly clear from the data presented by the city.

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