City of Port Townsend furloughs 19 workers

Represents $750,000 in reduced spending

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The City of Port Townsend announced Thursday it will furlough 19 full-time employees through the end of June in response to anticipated reductions in city revenue.

The staff cutbacks will save the city $750,000, reducing general fund spending by 7.5%, city manager John Mauro said.

Sales tax revenue is projected to decrease significantly as more people are staying home instead of shopping or visiting Port Townsend. That revenue makes up a large part of the city general fund, which funds most departmental operations and staffing.

“Just like flattening the epidemiological curve, we need to act quickly to flatten the financial impacts curve,” Mauro said in a press release. “The unfortunate reality is that we already have a very lean budget, so anywhere we cut hits bone right away.”

Furloughs are temporary leaves of absences, giving city employees the opportunity to apply for state and federal government assistance. However, furloughed employees will still be covered by the city offered health insurance plan.

The 19 furloughs represent four employees from the city administrative office, one from the police department, three from development services, two from finance and nine from parks and recreation. This is in addition to 32 part-time employees furloughed from the pool and library staff.

Department directors and managers will also take more “furloughed days off” without pay, which will result in an approximately 10% reduction in salary, Mauro said.

Reductions in staff also means reduction in service capacity, Mauro said in a press release.
“The community should know that we’re still delivering for them, but we’re doing so on

very limited shifts with exceptionally limited resources. We hope our residents are understanding as this might affect the service quality they expect and deserve,” he said.

These are painful cuts for the city, he said, but necessary to help ensure long term sustainability and avoid deeper impacts.