Laguna Beach Loses 31 Tourism Jobs To Corporate Consolidation

The local tourism industry took a blow last week, as Pacific Monarch Resorts, which specializes in timeshares, slashed jobs from its Laguna Beach office.

The Laguna Hills-based resort company also laid off employees in Anaheim, Irvine, Newport Beach, and several other cities—a total of 64 in all.

The move was due to corporate consolidation of positions, according to spokesperson Elliot Sloane of Las Vegas-based Diamond Resorts, which took over operations of Pacific Monarch in January after it had filed for bankruptcy protection. When the companies merged, redundant positions were eliminated, and these layoffs were part of that plan.

"In an effort to consolidate back-office functions with existing Diamond Resorts capabilities, a number of Pacific Monarch employees in functions such as human resources, accounting, finance, information technology and legal unfortunately were not offered positions," Sloane tells Patch in an email.

Sloane would not reveal the number of employees affected by the cuts, but the Orange County Register reports the Laguna Beach job loss figure is 31.

"Many of these employees were offered relocation packages to Diamond's headquarters in Las Vegas, but declined the offer," Sloane's email continues.

Diamond Resorts CEO Stephen J. Cloobeck was featured in an episode of CBS TV's "Undercover Boss" earlier this year.