Layoffs Underway For 25 County Workers

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY — Sixteen layoffs from the Contra Costa County Department of Child Support Services were approved last week by the county Board of Supervisors, which also approved layoffs for nine more county library workers.

The supervisors approved the Child Support Services layoffs citing a cut in state funding that has supported those jobs, supervisors said this past Tuesday.

The newest library employee layoffs, on the other hand, were made necessary by funding cuts from local cities that pay for open library hours above and beyond the 35 per week provided by the county library system.

The latest staffing cuts come directly as a result of funding cuts by the cities of Walnut Creek and Hercules.

In June, the Board of Supervisors had laid off 30 library employees following budget cuts in other Contra Costa cities.

The 10 cities that had paid the county to keep their libraries longer than the baseline 35 hours a week are expected to contribute a combined $700,000 less than the $3.38 million included in the county's preliminary 2020-21 budget, compiled before the COVID-19 pandemic decimated city budgets, largely through loss of sales taxes as many non-essential businesses were closed or had curtailed operations.

County Administrator David Twa told the supervisors Tuesday that the hope is that most of those laid off in both departments will land in vacant positions in other county government offices.

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