Layoffs Sacramento

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 return for no layoffs. But some of the unions, including Stationary Engineers Local 39, did not make deals with the city.

The union represents a wide variety of workers in numerous city departments, including code enforcement, parks and recreation, parking enforcement and the solid waste division.

Mayor Kevin Johnson told reporters Wednesday that the failed negotiations with Local 39 were "disappointing."

“It’s the city workers who are impacted by this,” Johnson said. “And our team of negotiators went back and forth with the leadership of Local 39, trying to engage them over and over. And, at some point -- I cannot tell you why -- there was just not willingness at their part to negotiate.”

But Local 39 representatives claim that city officials were not interested in giving union members layoff protections.

“While other groups have been offered a no-layoff guarantee in exchange for wage concessions, the city adamantly refuses to do so for non-safety workers,” according to a Local 39 written statement.

Joan Bryant, director of public employees for Local 39, said Thursday that city officials “walked away from the talks.” The layoffs are unfortunate, she said.

The numbers of layoffs for both city and county employees were not exact by Thursday afternoon. The county sent out 793 pink slips to employees last month, but the number of total layoffs may be different when the county finishes calculating the exact numbers in the next two weeks, according to county spokesman Zeke Holst.

The numbers are not yet set in stone for several reasons, according to Holst. One of the reasons the numbers are still unclear is because there are employees choosing to retire, he added.

He also explained that the county is in the midst of “bumping” procedures. An employee who has seniority can move down to a lower position, he explained. When these employees move down to lower positions, they “bump” the people in the lower positions out of their jobs.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

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