City will cut jobs, shave departments

The city of Colorado Springs is consolidating several departments, laying off five employees and eliminating 23 vacant positions to help prepare for an expected budget shortfall topping $23 million in 2009.

The city will save $500,640 under the reorganization plan from City Manager Penny Culbreth-Graft, the city said Friday. The budget shortfall is largely due to declining sales tax revenues, the city said.

"The bottom line is, we're going to be better-positioned in 2009 to live within the budget we have based on our sales tax revenues," city spokeswoman Sue Skiffington-Blumberg said.

Under the plan, city government will be grouped into five units, down from nine. The move will increase responsibilities for key supervisors by adding divisions to their areas of responsibility.

The information technology department will absorb most of the layoffs, losing two information systems managers, one information systems supervisor and one senior information systems analyst. The city's intergovernmental officer, a liaison to state and federal government, was also cut.

Twenty-three vacant positions were to be filled when money became available, but the city opted to eliminate them under what Skiffington-Blumberg called right-sizing the organization.

Some supervisors were rotated into positions of lesser responsibility, with corresponding pay cuts.

Culbreth-Graft first announced the restructuring in late August but provided no details. Cutting back on the repaving of streets and reducing bus service were discussed with City Council as additional steps to narrow the gap from projected revenues of $232.3 million and expenses of $255.6 million.

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Contact the writer: 636-0366 or lance.benzel@gazette.com