City Worker Who Jumped to His Death Was From Fountain Valley

A maintenance worker from Fountain Valley who was among those about to be laid off to cover a multimillion-dollar budget deficit jumped from the roof of Costa Mesa City Hall today and died,  the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner's office has reported.

Twenty-nine-year-old Huy Pham had worked for the city of Costa Mesa for the last 4 1/2 years, and while he had not received one of the 200 layoff notices issued to city
employees today, he was due to receive one, Costa Mesa police Lt. Bryan Glass said.

The man jumped from the top of City Hall on the east side about 3:20 p.m., Glass said.

"This is a tragic event for the city as well as for all city employees,'' Glass said. "Everyone here is a close family and we're all familiar with each other.''

City employees were all working to console each other, Glass said.

The City Council voted this month to outsource 18 city services, and today a little more than 200 employees were handed layoff notices.

The city is facing a $1.4-million deficit for this fiscal year and a projected $15 million deficit for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

"This is a time to be praying for the family and the people who knew him,'' Councilman Jim Righeimer said.

Mayor Gary Monahan said "our hearts and prayers are with the family, friends and co-workers during this tragic time.''

"In addition, crisis counselors have been brought in immediately to provide support to the City Hall family and will continue to be on-site for as long as needed,'' Monahan said.

Before the man's death, tensions were already running high at City Hall as employees were being issued the layoff notices.

City mechanic Billy Folsom said it was difficult not knowing whether he would lose his job or not.

"We don't know. That's the hard part because we're in limbo,'' Folsom said. "It's really going to impact the services for the community obviously. There's going to be a reduction in service.''

Also, jobless city workers won't have as much disposable income to spend at area businesses, Folsom said.

"You can't buy a car, can't go out to eat when you don't have a job,'' Folsom said

Folsom accused City Council members who supported the layoffs of "selling off our city piece by piece to do favors for their developer friends,'' Folsom said, adding the outsourcing was a way to throw business to private companies who provide council members with political donations.

Righeimer said the layoffs are a necessary evil to cover the looming deficit, and he stressed that the private businesses that will take over city services will be encouraged to hire the laid-off workers.

"A lot of these people clearly are going to be hired,'' Righeimer said. "And all of the pension they've accrued they keep. That doesn't go away.''

About 100 of those who will be laid off are firefighters, who will be hired by the Orange County Fire Authority when it takes over firefighting services for the city, Righeimer said.

"Believe me, everybody on the council would rather be out there cutting ribbons, but this is the kind of financial surgery we need to do to get the patient well,'' Righeimer said.

Righeimer reiterated that a big part of the city's financial woes are owed to ballooning pension fund costs.

Righeimer cited a report from the state Public Employees' Retirement System that he said showed the city has a $134-million unfunded pension liability.

"Meaning, we have no way to pay for it,'' Righeimer said.

Jennifer Muir of the Orange County Employees Association, disputed that figure.

"It's a number made up out of thin air,'' Muir said. "That's something they came up with internally to justify the layoffs and they refuse to explain the number. This whole strategy is based on a made-up number.''

—City News Service