The city laid off seven city employees in the Development Services Department Monday and today.

Interim City Manager Charlie Cassens said the layoffs were the result of “reviewing the city’s resources as compared to the community demands” and because “construction industry numbers are way low,” he said this afternoon. Cassens added the layoffs are not because of limited revenue. The city is expected to have to cut an additional $3.8 million from its budget this year, Cassens said last week.

“This round of reductions was a result of trying to make the (Development Services Department) more efficient,” Cassens said. “It’s a proactive action, not a reaction to revenue shortfalls and budget projections. We have yet to get far enough into those discussions to decide whether we will need to make additional cuts and where they might be. … It’s just too early to tell.”

Cassens said he and Development Services Director Larry Didion spent several weeks analyzing development and construction numbers before deciding to lay off the employees.

“Part of that analysis said that the demand for those services were not indicating an increase,” Cassens said. “We do not think those numbers will go back to what it once was so this was necessary to balance the organization.”

The decision is one of many difficult ones Cassens expects the city will need to make in the next several months.

“Larry and I worked very closely on this and this decision was not taken lightly of course,” he said. “We spent many hours on collaborating on the review of our situation. …We do know that staff has met with respect to what we expect on revenue projections and like I said, we’re expecting to reduce, from last year’s budget, about $3.8 million. That is going to be a difficult process in itself. To speculate as to what additional personnel reductions we would need to make would just not be possible at this time until we look at it further.”

You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com