The city council’s late-night meeting behind closed doors to
discuss additional layoffs ended without a decision Wednesday,
giving council members at least until Monday to consider union
counter-proposals.
The city council’s late-night meeting behind closed doors to discuss additional layoffs ended without a decision Wednesday, giving council members at least until Monday to consider union counter-proposals.
The afternoon before the meeting, though, two police officers announced they were not willing to wait around for possible pink slips and had instead accepted jobs in the Watsonville Police Department, Police Chief Denise Turner said. While their departures will help the council narrow an expected $4.7 million deficit in next year’s $37.3 million budget, the body is still looking for all four of Gilroy’s unions to each cut 16 percent of their personnel costs, which equals at least 33 employees ranging from firefighters to managers.
No decision Wednesday night means those employees won’t receive pink slips today, but it puts more pressure on the council – which will meet again Monday and Wednesday if needed – to respond to union counter-proposals.
City Administrator Tom Haglund must hand out layoff notices by May 31 if he wants the changes to go into effect by July 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year.
A second round of layoffs – after 48 full-time workers lost their jobs in January – would leave City Hall with 194 employees, down from nearly 300 a couple years ago.
“I wasn’t expecting to make a decision last night,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said Thursday morning. “I’m not going to comment on my reaction to the proposals because that would be speculative, but I will say we’re happy that things have been brought to the table.”
Council members have declined to detail the unions’ counter-proposals, but Police Officer Association President Mitch Madruga said the union has asked the council to cut mounted and canine units along with other auxiliary assignments instead of laying off eight sworn officers in addition to not filling the vacant spots of the two officers who are leaving. Madruga said the city’s reserve fund could pay for all 10 of these positions.
While Gilroy has typically relied on its healthy reserve fund to seal budget leaks, council members have said they are unwilling to further drain the fund after a $4.7 million hit last year and an expected $8.4 million reduction this year.
The fund will hold about $13.6 million come July 1, or about 36 percent of next year’s budgeted expenses, provided this latest round of cuts or layoffs happens.
Representatives for the three other bargaining blocs – Fire Local 2805, the Gilroy Managers’ Association and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 101 – have declined to detail their counter-proposals.
“We all know where we stand and where we’re at and we’re unified in finding a joint solution, but we need some feedback from the city,” Local 2805 Representative Jim Buessing said Friday. “It’s good that the council is really looking at our counter-proposals.”
AFSCME Business Agent Tina Acree said her 100 members, who range from emergency dispatchers to engineers, want the council to consider furloughs, or workdays-without-pay, rather than 13 layoffs that would save about $1 million. When 48 full-time employees left City Hall in January, AFSCME lost 27 employees – more than any other union.
The police department lost a handful of support staff, but the 59-member POA did not lose any sworn officers in January.
Fire Local 2805 – which represents 33 employees and is concurrently in normally scheduled contract talks – lost six firefighters then along with other support staff and is bracing for a similar hit this time, according to Buessing and Fire Chief Dale Foster. Foster has prepared a list of names and said he has also considered cutting the department’s battalion and division chiefs, who belong to the 23-member Gilroy Managers’ Association.
“That’s certainly been discussed,” Foster said, adding that he and other department heads and high-ranking employees have also talked about reducing their own salaries, but “I won’t say any number or percentages.”
Foster, who earned $164,512 last year, joined Gilroy in 2005 after a 33-year career in San Jose that left him with a $128,462 annual pension, according to numbers provided by San Jose Finance Director Scott Johnson.
