Notices of intended layoffs have been sent to a handful of employees of the city of Simi Valley, including three building inspectors who make up a program to combat unsafe housing conditions such as overcrowding and illegal garage conversions.

City officials said they look at layoffs as a last resort, but a tight budget and lack of revenues have led Simi Valley to consider cutting funding for almost 40 positions. About 32 of those positions currently are vacant; the rest would require layoffs.

The savings potential for the city is about $2 million to $3 million, said Laura Bejhan, assistant city manager.

"While employees may have received a notice, it's a part of a process," said Bejhan. "We're continuing to fine tune the list of recommendations that will go to the City Council on Wednesday."

The council will review the preliminary budget in a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The employees were given until Wednesday at 5 p.m. to respond to the notice of intended layoff.

The city is trying to balance a budget of $66.7 million for the 2008-09 fiscal year. Bejhan said there is a $3 million imbalance city staff is trying to eliminate.

"Assuming we will in fact have to cut those positions, we will be working with those employees to find some other opportunities within our organization, or to assist them to find other employment," Bejhan said.

The Building and Safety Department could potentially lose three employees, if the recommendations are accepted by the council.

The city looks at eliminating positions based on workload, Bejhan said, and a lack of new residential construction has created less need for building inspectors.

There are 12 inspectors in the department, and some oversee the Municipal Unsafe Structure Tracking System, a program that cracks down on residential code violations. MUSTS was started after a fire in 2005 resulted in the death of a man and injuries to his girlfriend and an infant. The blaze was in an overcrowded and substandard dwelling.

Bejhan said if the inspectors are laid off, the MUSTS workload would be redistributed among the remaining inspectors.

The MUSTS program allows three city divisions — planning, building and safety, and code enforcement — to jointly track potentially dangerous housing conditions, including illegal garage conversions, unapproved room additions, detached structures not approved for living and recreational vehicles used as homes. The cases are developed based on complaints the city receives or are initiated by code enforcement and building and safety workers.

In addition to the three inspector positions, according to an inter- departmental memo, city staff is considering recommending cutting a clerk and a planning intern in the Department of Environmental Services, a part-time aide at the Simi Valley Senior Center and a technical coordinator at the Cultural Arts Center.

Councilman Glen Becerra said the city has refrained from filling positions in anticipation of the tight budget.

"We've held back funding positions, but we have not actually laid off real people," Becerra said. "We take this very seriously."

According to a report in the preliminary 2008-09 budget, last year MUSTS "provided a proactive and reactive response to the program and referred 32 potential life and safety cases to the Environmental Services Department for follow-up."

Becerra said city staff may look at eliminating positions, but "at the end of the day, the priorities of the City Council are going to be met."

Although he hadn't read through the entire preliminary budget, he said the MUSTS program should remain a priority.

"The health and safety of the city is hugely important," Becerra said. "The MUSTS program is important precisely because it is tough economic times."

The council meets in City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road. For more information, visit http://www.simivalley.org.