City's budget woes forcing job cuts in Naperville

Twenty Naperville government employees are losing their jobs this week as the city tries to address its looming budget deficit, officials announced Thursday.

The cuts are on top of 23 vacant positions that already were eliminated, making it the largest job force reduction in city history, City Manager Doug Krieger said.

"It's a very sad topic," he said. "It became apparent after we identified our initial budget shortfall (that) it would not be able to be covered simply by changes to non-personnel budget items."

The city has worked for months to fill a $5.1 million budget gap that was projected to grow to $11 million in the coming fiscal year that starts in May.

The shortfall is due largely to reduced revenues, particularly in sales tax and real estate transfer taxes.

The cuts will reduce Naperville's work force by roughly 5 percent and are estimated to result in more than $3 million in savings next fiscal year.

Combined with spending cuts and cost reductions in every department, the savings in personnel should allow the city to meet the budget parameters set by city council members, Krieger said.

The city began notifying employees who are losing their jobs on Wednesday night and plans to finish Friday morning. All but two are full-time workers.

Every department was affected, including police and fire, but Krieger said the majority of employees are "non-frontline."

"The focus was on non-core services so as to minimize the impact as well as visibility to residents," he said.

Employees losing their jobs will receive severance packages based on years of experience along with outplacement training and counseling.

The city will look at restructuring the jobs of remaining employees to fill the gaps.

"We expect all of our employees to be flexible and cooperative during the next several months," Krieger said.