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Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
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OC Cities Pick Up Pace on Job Cuts

Most of Orange County’s cities cut jobs amid modest population and revenue growth last year.

There are about 13% fewer city employees compared to a year ago, according to this week’s Business Journal list, which ranks all 34 cities in OC on their total population.

This week’s list is compiled using data from California’s Department of Finance and individual cities. It also includes yearly revenue, employment totals, and the largest employers in each of OC’s cities, many of which are cash-strapped and facing rising pension obligations.

12,978 Workers

The number of employees on city payrolls stood at 12,978 as of last month, down about 13% from a year ago, and by 15% from the onset of the recession in 2007.

Government lagged the private sector in laying off workers at the onset of the last recession. That’s been reversed on the municipal landscape here, with private employers adding jobs and cities making cuts to deal with current or projected budget shortfalls.

Twenty cities on the list, including nine of the top 10 largest cities, reported a decline in employees over the past year.

Notable cutbacks include those seen in Santa Ana, which now reports employing 1,203 people, a decline of nearly 600 jobs for a 33% decline from a year ago. Santa Ana earlier this year disbanded its fire department, and now counts on the Orange County Fire Authority for service. The move took about 200 jobs off the city’s payroll, shifting the workers to the county agency.

Costa Mesa, No. 8 on this week’s list with 110,757 residents, now employs 478 people. That’s down from 780 employees reported as of five years ago, and reflects Costa Mesa’s well-documented recent attempts at privatizing many city services to save money as it faces rising pension costs and other expenses.

Stanton, No. 25 on the list with 38,498 residents, now employs 31. That’s down from more than 60 employees as of a year ago. The hard-hit city recently eliminated much of its nonessential services to cut costs.

General revenue figures reported by OC’s cities on the list are a mixed bag.

Cities on this week’s list combined for revenue—derived from sales taxes, property taxes, development fees and other sources—of $1.96 billion last year, a second year-over-year gain of about 1%.

Revenues for the cities on the list—which are best estimates for the 12 months through June and subject to change as cities close their books—topped out at a little less that $2.1 billion about four years ago.

Twenty cities expect to see year-over-year gains in revenue, two show no change, and 12 cities expect a decline.

The largest reported drop came for No. 16 San Clemente, which saw its revenue decreased by $9.6 million, or 16.6%, to $48.4 million. The biggest percentage increase is for No. 17 Laguna Niguel, which saw its revenue increase nearly 12% to $38.6 million.

The county’s population increased by nearly 1% for a second-straight year.

OC’s population growth slightly outpaced the state, which saw a 0.7% increase to 37.68 million residents last year.

All the cities in OC account for 2.94 million residents, making up nearly all of the county’s 3.06 million people, according to the list.

Anaheim, which last year overtook Santa Ana as OC’s most populous city, retained the No. 1 spot this year, with 343,793 people, a 0.8% increase from a year ago.

The city—home to two Walt Disney Co. theme parks, hotels and two professional sports teams—saw an addition of just under 2,800 people last year, and is now the 10th-largest city in the state.

Santa Ana, which added a little more than 2,000 residents last year, now has a population of 327,731, ranking it No. 11 among all California cities.

Consistency was the name of the game among OC cities last year, at least in terms of population growth.

There were no changes in the rankings on this year’s list; last year saw six cities shift places.

All 34 cities showed increases in population this year, although only seven had growth of 1% or more.

Irvine was the fastest-growing city in the county in terms of new residents and its percentage increase. It added more than 5,300 people, a gain of 2.5% that took its population to 223,729 people.

Irvine’s growth came partly because of strong new home sales on the Irvine Ranch, as well as the opening of several new apartment complexes across the city (see related story, page 1).

Irvine overtook Huntington Beach as the county’s third-largest city four years ago. It now counts nearly 31,000 more residents than Surf City, which last year saw 1.1% population growth to 192,524 people.

OC’s four largest cities combine for a little more than 1 million residents, accounting for about a third of the county’s total population.

8 Above 100,000

Eight cities in OC top the 100,000 mark in population, and combine for about 54% of the county’s population.

Besides Irvine the biggest source of population gains on a percentage basis was in North OC last year.

Fullerton, No. 7 with 137,481 residents, saw a 1.5% jump in population, while Yorba Linda (No. 15, 65,777) saw a 1.4% increase, and Brea (No. 24, 40,942) saw a nearly 2.2% bump.


Download the 2012 LIST OF OC CITIES (pdf)

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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