The Long Beach Health Department is planning to lay off or reassign up to 40 people in a retraction caused by the end of some programs and swift federal cuts announced earlier this year. The department currently employs about 300 people.
As of this week, five people have been laid off, while one resigned and another accepted a part-time position. Fifteen people are pending reassignment, while nine more have been placed elsewhere in the city — mostly somewhere else in the health department.
Nine positions are on the bubble and could be retained if grant or city funding is secured, according to a Health Department spokesperson…