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Friday, February 10, 2012
City passes budget, 168 workers to be laid off Friday
by Kathleen Haley, published on June 16, 2009 at 10:29 PM
Storyline: City Budget
The Sacramento City Council’s unanimous approval of Sacramento’s budget Tuesday means that city services could face major cuts and that the last day of work for 168 city employees is Friday. While the council adopted the budget, the situation may soon change because some of the city’s key unions, including its firefighters’ union, have not yet finished negotiations with the city.
Sacramento has balanced its budget and closed a gap of more than $43 million. City officials continued to say Tuesday that many cuts and layoffs could be averted if the unions make concessions. Since the budget has now been approved, any changes to the budget would be amendments.
Of the 168 layoffs approved with the budget, 41 will be from the Sacramento Fire Department, according to the latest numbers from the labor union that represents city firefighters.
The Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522 and city managers are in the midst of controversial negotiations. Members of the firefighters’ union will finish voting on their latest tentative agreement with the city Wednesday afternoon. The results of the vote won’t be available until Thursday, said union spokesman Chris Harvey.
Several council members pressed for union concessions during the meeting.
"We need them to step up now," said Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy.
The final deadline for unions to approve labor agreements with the city for the 2009/2010 fiscal year is June 30 at midnight, according to acting city spokeswoman Wendy Klock-Johnson.
City firefighters and Local 522 member Brandon Doughty told the city council that he was one of the firefighters who would be laid off. In his remarks, he referenced the city government's slogan: “Get the customer to success.” He said that the layoffs mean that getting the customer to success is the last thing the city is concerned with. The city has made poor financial decisions in the past, he said.
Councilman Steve Cohn agreed in part with Doughty’s comments, saying that the city has approved some “foolish expenses” in the past. However, reversing those past decisions would not change the budget situation now, he said.
Harvey said after the vote that the city is unfairly saying that union concessions are the way to fix the city’s budget problems.
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- limousines filled with liquor, so as to ease the strain of using fire trucks as personal party vessels
- suv redesigned and painted red so firefighters can give joy rides without having to use actual fire trucks
- reinstatement of brass poles at fire stations, not for quick access to the ground floor but for porn stars to come to the stations and do dances. This will avoid the necessity of the SFD to attend porn star costume balls.
p.s. Also note that the bid RFP's for the Mayor's personal security is closed....but the amount is not disclosed yet. Here's the link: http://www.cityofsacramento.org/generalservices/procurement/bid-results/2009.cfm