Longmont plans to add 18 new full-time equivalent positions to the city’s employee roster next year.
At the same time, city officials plan to eliminate six public safety jobs that are either already vacant or will be soon.
Over the past several weeks, the Longmont City Council has listened to numerous financial presentations and is expected to finalize and formally adopt next year’s 657-page budget, which is available for public inspection on the city’s , in October.
If the City Council approves the budget, the city government’s total number of full-time equivalent positions will be just over 1,161. That number includes mainly full-time jobs but also some part-time ones, too. The 2025 budget has proposed 3.35 new full-time equivalent positions in the water fund, 3.3 in the open space fund, 3 in the parks and greenway fund, 2.5 in the streets fund, 2.3 in the sewer fund, 1.3 in the storm drainage fund, 1 in the electric and broadband fund, 1 in the affordable housing fund and 0.25 in the sustainability fund. Some full-time equivalent positions are funded by more than one fund such as the water and sewer funds.
At the same time, two firefighters, two police officers, one paramedic and one communications shift supervisor will be from next year’s public safety fund. All six of those full-time public safety positions are either already vacant or will be soon, meaning no current employees will lose their jobs as a result of the reductions, according to budget documents.
Due to more than $2 million of new ongoing expenses in the public safety fund and less than $1 million of new ongoing revenue, city workers said they would need to make reductions to base ongoing expenses in that specific fund. City officials have made clear that they are not defunding police or fire but rather balancing the public safety fund.
Earlier this week, the results of a 2024 employee satisfaction survey were also presented to the Longmont City Council. Some 533 workers took the survey and more than 90 percent indicated that they were either extremely satisfied, somewhat satisfied or satisfied with the city government as an employer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top issues for employees were compensation, work-life balance and flexibility as well as their relationships with their supervisors and work teams. Longmont Mayor Joan Peck said during the City Council meeting Tuesday that she was pleased with the positive survey results, calling them “pretty good percentages.”
