VERO BEACH — An undetermined number of city employees will lose their jobs this fall after the Vero Beach City Council directed City Manager Jim O’Connor to cut the city’s general fund budget by about 11 percent.
O’Connor suggested Tuesday that the cuts would be big and that departments traditionally thought to be sacred, such as the Vero Beach Police Department, could also be cut.
The police department with its 74 employees, 52 of which are officers, makes up a large chunk of the general operating budget.
Mayor Craig Fletcher appeared to be the only one Tuesday to want to steadily shrink the city’s budget. He proposed shrinking the budget about five percent a year over the next three years.
Councilwoman Pilar Turner suggested that that would only prolong the agony and said it would be best just to get it over with.
“I suggest we do it now,” she said. “This is our chance to right-size our government.”
O’Connor and City Finance Director Cindy Lawson have already worked out a plan incorporating seven jobs naturally lost when the city’s electrical system is turned over to Florida Power and Light. Those positions amount to about $600,000 in cuts and are not positions that would be turned over to FP&L when many of the utility workers will become FP&L employees on a temporary basis.
The cuts are necessary because after FP&L takes over the electric system the city will no longer be able to depend on the $7 million that was pumped into the general fund by Vero Electric customers.
In spite of the city getting about $111.5 million for the sale of the electric system, much of that money will be used to pay off debt and other obligations.
Neither O’Connor nor Lawson wanted to speculate on the number of people who would join the other seven to lose their jobs.
“There is absolutely going to be positions cut,” said Lawson. “I just cannot give you a number.”
The 11 percent reduction in the general fund will decrease the budget by about $2.2 million.
Lawson and O’Connor will present a budget proposal to City Council in early July.
