SAN JOSE
– As Santa Clara County officials estimate they may have to cut
6 percent of their workforce – or more than 900 positions – to
address just the local share of their budgetary woes, the Gilroy
City Council has begun prioritizing city services in preparation
for its own possible cutbacks, with p
ublic safety coming in as top dog.
SAN JOSE – As Santa Clara County officials estimate they may have to cut 6 percent of their workforce – or more than 900 positions – to address just the local share of their budgetary woes, the Gilroy City Council has begun prioritizing city services in preparation for its own possible cutbacks, with public safety coming in as top dog.
Santa Clara County administrators estimated Monday that 932 of the county’s roughly 16,000 positions could be on the chopping block in coming months based on budget reduction plans submitted by individual county departments last week.
Of those positions, roughly half – or 495, to be exact – are vacant, but another 432 are currently filled, with the layoffs slated to take effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year on July 1.
The layoff talk comes as the county faces a gap in next year’s budget of at least $160 million dollars. Individual county departments have been asked to identify cuts up to 14 percent in their budgets in order to trim the shortfall by roughly $120 million.
“When you have a $160 million deficit, there’s not much you can do,” said District 1 County Supervisor Don Gage. “And that’s before the state hits us.
“People are going to get laid off, and we’re going to have to cut way back – we can’t do anything else.”
The city and county are among local governments across the state expected to be hurting in the next fiscal year from the effects of the economic downturn, rising employee health and retirement benefit costs and fallout from the state government’s $30-plus billion shortfall.
At the county level, widespread layoffs are becoming a reality for the first time as many private companies have already slashed their own workforces in the aftermath of the dot-com bubble’s burst and the post-Sept. 11 economic doldrums.
However, officials stressed that the numbers released Monday are still very preliminary. County administrators are in the process of reviewing the plans to ensure they are feasible and reflect the core mission of each department. County supervisors, who will make the final call on cutbacks, will start reviewing the plans next week.
Gage has said his top priority is public safety, but also stressed the county’s role as a “safety net” for children and many others.
“We’re going to have to take a look at every one of those areas,” he said.
At the city of Gilroy, administrators have not announced the necessity of layoffs but have not entirely discounted them either, although they do stress that eliminating employees will be a last resort.
“We’re not going to go that far yet,” said City Administrator Jay Baksa Tuesday when asked whether layoffs are on the horizon.
However, each of the city’s 32 departments has been asked to identify areas where it can cut 10 percent of its budget if necessary in order to help the city compensate for the local share of its revenue shortfalls.
Officials have said they expect at least an $800,000 drop in revenues for the general fund, which is the city’s discretionary money that goes largely toward employee salaries. In the meantime, health and retirement costs continue to rise. Because of those ever-changing dynamics and the state’s ongoing budget debate, the city may have to create three different budgets for leaders to consider.
In the meantime, each Councilmember has been asked to submit a list of his top priorities, which Baksa compiled into an overall list he released Monday. The priorities are not final cuts by any means in any department, but will be used in general by administrators as they analyze reduction plans and return to Council in coming months.
As in years past, public safety operations are top priority. Police patrol, investigation and support, fire suppression and fire emergency medical and paramedic services weighing in at the top three ranks. In fact, law enforcement and safety-related departments and programs made up all of the first 11 priorities with the exception of general administration and land-use planning services.
“The protection of the humanscape is more important than any other item,” said Councilman Charlie Morales. “The police and fire departments are your number-one priority.”
Councilman Craig Gartman has agreed that police and fire are number-one.
“We always need to keep our eyes focused on what the ultimate responsibilities of cities are, and that’s to take care of its citizens,” he said. “Everything else comes secondary.”
In the matrix of priorities Baksa released yesterday, youth recreation and the city’s youth center follow closely, with economic development and street maintenance hanging in the middle of the pack.
Senior recreation and parks and landscape maintenance linger in the bottom-middle of the pack, with adult and cultural recreation programs, the visitor’s bureau, tree trimming and city’s museum anchoring the bottom.
Like their counterparts at the county, some city departments are beginning to identify positions to meet their reduction goals. For example, to meet his roughly $700,000 target Gilroy Fire Chief Jeff Clet said he has identified several unfilled positions budgeted to staff the city’s planned third fire station in the Northwest Quad area.
Meanwhile, the state’s budget mechanics hang ominously over both governments.
If the state eliminates vehicle license fee reimbursements as proposed by Gov. Gray Davis, city officials have said it could mean an $800,000 hit during the current fiscal year and $1.8 million annually in subsequent years. For the county, it could mean an additional $85 million shortfall next year.
There have been some new expenses besides health care and retirement costs at the county level. Workers and department heads have received raises in the last year and supervisors recently approved – on a split vote – a new county holiday in honor of farm labor leader Cesar Chavez that will cost at least $650,000 in direct overtime costs, besides lost labor.
