Hermosa Beach City Council has approved filling two out of five previously frozen employee positions in the city’s Police Department, using money saved since 11 city employees took early retirement deals.
One year ago the council approved mid-fiscal-year adjustments to the municipal budget that brought frozen, vacant positions in the 39-member Police Department from two to five. At the time, council members said they would refill two of the positions if enough money was freed up from the early retirements.
At the time, Sgt. Jaime Ramirez, president of the Hermosa Beach Police Officers Association, and Sgt. Kevin Averill, an association member, pleaded unsuccessfully for the council to reduce the frozen positions below five.
The council’s decision on Tuesday, coming again at the midpoint of a fiscal year, also approved the hiring of a director for the Public Works Department, another goal that had been previously been stated by council members.
The 11 early retirees, which included previous Public Works Director Rick Morgan, saved the city $1.1 million.
City officials also have begun filling the previously vacant positions of a fire captain and a police captain, which were not among the frozen positions.
A total of 25 frozen, vacant positions continue to exist in the overall city workforce.
Hermosa Beach City Finance Director Viki Copeland told the council that revenues to the city rose one percent over the first half of the fiscal year, leaving her cautiously optimistic – with an emphasis on the caution part – about the local economy.
“At this point we would say that flat [revenue] is a good thing,” she said.
