More than 350 jobs, including those of 80 sworn police officers, could be cut to balance the city’s budget, Interim City Manager Bill Edgar said Friday. The city manager’s office released recommendations Friday on how to resolve a $39 million budget gap. The proposal released by the city is not set in stone: The City Council is responsible for making final budget decisions. “This is the budget that everyone has dreaded,” Edgar said. “(This is) the budget where the chickens come home to roost.” The city manager’s office proposes cutting 294 positions. In addition, Edgar said he is recommending that the City Council cut about 60 more positions to privatize maintenance of city golf courses

The Sacramento City Council approved a two-year labor contract with city union Stationary Engineers Local 39 that saved about 80 positions. Since the city came up about $1.2 million short in its negotiations with Local 39, council members decided Tuesday night to move that amount from a parking fund to the general fund. The city’s transportation department spokeswoman, Linda Tucker, explained in an e-mail last week that the city’s parking fund is designed to pay for new parking garages. “Given the downturn in development and no urgent need to build new garages, we are using about $1.2 million one-time dollars from the fund to cover the gap between what the city expected to receive in wag

At least 80 city employee jobs were saved after the members of the city union Stationary Engineers Local 39 approved a contract with city officials. City employees passed the contract earlier this month, according to an Aug. 23 e-mail that Interim City Manager Gus Vina sent to city staff and the City Council. Local 39 leaders and city officials negotiated a deal Aug. 6, but the union’s members had not voted on the contract at that time. The union represents 1,600 full-time city workers, according to Joan Bryant, director of public employees for Local 39. These city employees hold jobs in several areas that include code enforcement, animal care and the solid waste division. The contract

While the city and Stationary Engineers Local 39 saved 80 jobs with an agreement Friday, the city laid off 11 workers represented by the local plumbers’ union. The city did not find common ground with Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447 by Friday, the city’s deadline for layoffs. Harry Rotz, business manager for Local 447, did not return phone messages earlier this week. No one answered the phone at 4:45 p.m. Friday at the union’s office. Interim City Manager Gus Vina said the city would continue to negotiate with Local 447. “There’s 80 people in the city of Sacramento that were packing up and were planning on going home to tell their son or daughter — their family members — that they’

An official with a union representing 1,600 full-time city workers said that the union and the city government have found a way to avoid lay offs. Joan Bryant, director of public employees for Stationary Engineers Local 39, told the Sacramento Press that city managers and her union found common ground on contract negotiations Friday afternoon. Local 39 and the city worked out a tentative two-year agreement, Bryant said. She said the agreement would include no pay cuts. The contract also includes 11 furlough days for the 2010/2011 fiscal year, she said. In the 2011/2012 fiscal year, there would be 12 furlough days. The tentative contract also would give each employee 40 hours of personal

The city of Sacramento sent out pink slips to about 90 employees Wednesday because city management and two unions have not yet found common ground in their contract negotiations. However, Interim Assistant City Manager Patti Bisharat said city officials have not given up on efforts to resolve their differences with the unions. In June, the city closed a $43 million budget gap for the 2011 fiscal year. The two unions that have not made concessions are Stationary Engineers Local 39 and Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447. Local 39 represents employees in numerous city departments, including Utilities, Transportation and Community Development. Bisharat said Tuesday that the city was still

Claims that the city’s development department did not retrieve fees from developers in recent years have raised questions of whether some of last year’s layoffs could have been avoided. At one point last year, the city had a $50 million budget gap. The Community Development Department was hit with 27 of the city’s 102 layoffs, according to economic development spokesman Maurice Chaney. Sacramento is now struggling with a $35 million-$40 million budget hole for the 2010/2011 fiscal year. A third-party auditor will investigate claims that the development department waived, undercharged, deferred or did not retrieve development fees, City Auditor Jorge Oseguera said. In a phone interview

In a sign that the opposing camp to the “strong mayor” initiative has significant union support, three local union leaders turned out for a Tuesday press conference to support a new lawsuit against the initiative.  The group SAVE Sacramento, which is chaired by local union leader Matt Kelly, is publicizing a lawsuit that aims to take the strong mayor initiative off the June 2010 ballot.   The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Bill Camp, the executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council. Camp filed the lawsuit as a private citizen — he is not representing the labor council in the legal battle. The defendants named in the lawsuit are the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Counc

For about 180 city employees and roughly 790 county employees, Thursday was the last day of work. The city layoffs are part of the budget cuts the city approved when it passed its budget last month. When it passed its budget, city officials closed a $50 million deficit. County layoffs came with the Board of Supervisors’ approval of its proposed budget last month. The county government had faced a $180 million deficit. For its final budget in September, the Board must still close out a $19 million budget gap in the state-mandated programs the county administers, according to Linda Foster-Hall, the county budget officer. Some of the city’s unions made concessions to city managers in retur