City Manager Utilizes the Old Chopping Block

August 4, 2006

Our new, fearless and determined City Manager, Ann Marie Gallant is doing her job! She is doing what needs to be done and should be supported to the hilt. Her goal of cutting the fat or clearing out the driftwood is something that is overdue and something that must be done. With an estimated cut of 20% of staff and city workers it is assumed that the Police Department will be untouched; at the very least,  only nicked, rather than deeply cut.

The City of Desert Hot Springs has contracted with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department on more than three occasions and residents overwhelmingly voted to have their own police department. Service reports by local citizens were hardly complimentary for the Sheriff's Department the last times they were part of our city system. It is preferred by the citizenry to have a police authority that lives within the city, rather than having to commute back and forth to another city. It is a comforting and also a deterrent to crime to have a police cruiser parked in a neighborhood driveway, knowing that the driver is a neighborhood resident, who actually cares about the community in which he resides and socializes.

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"It is a substantial number; it's a chunk of positions," she said. "It's not just a rumor - it is going to be necessary," she says.  "These cuts will touch every department from the top to bottom, from the left to the right; they are what some would call severe - Draconian." Because of rumors permeating City Hall, Gallant made the announcements to quell the rumors and to stop the nervous affect they were having on the morale of city workers.

Many things contributed to this drastic action, such as litigation and legal settlements, overtime pay and a drop in income from development.

On August 1, 2006, all seasonal, part-time and temporary employees will lose their positions with the city. The employees have already gotten the word. Although many will fall,  Police Chief Walt McKinney will remain as he has a contract for one year. Ann Marie is trying not to disrupt the Police Department as it stands.

How this will affect the rest of the Police staff is not known.