Olathe ? Olathe told 12 full-time and nine part-time city employees Thursday that they no longer had jobs.

The city was forced to eliminate their positions to meet residents’ service demands with fewer resources, city spokesman Tim Danneberg said. He said the move would put the city in a better financial position for 2009.

Employees will be given two weeks of pay for each year they were employed with the city and a 2 percent bonus. He said they also will be paid for unused vacation time and unused sick leave up to 240 hours.

The city already had frozen all vacant positions and reorganized some departments this year -a move that created about $890,000 in annual savings. However, the city projected a $4 million shortfall next year and needed to find more ways to address the gap.

Despite tight budgets this year and in 2009, the city has not proposed raising property taxes.