San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced his intention to eliminate as many as 1,400 city jobs in order to close the current budget deficit, though the vast majority of those positions are currently unfilled.
News of potential layoffs is reverberating around City Hall this week as San Francisco faces the first set of major, budget-related layoffs in a decade and a half. As the Chronicle reports, following Lurie's demand that all city departments voluntarily slash 15% of their budgets, the mayor informed the communications directors of some two dozen city departments Wednesday that many departments could be losing around 10 employees.
Per the Chronicle, at least 150 of the positions in question are currently filled, but many in that 1,400 number represent vacant positions, and positions filled by individuals who are currently slated for retirement.
The SF Standard first reported on the meeting with the mayor, and they had pegged the job-elimination number closer to 1,000.
San Francisco has around 35,000 active city employees, and presently faces a two-year $800 million budget shortfall.
“As I’ve indicated before, there are no good options,” said Board of Supervisors Budget Committee chair Connie Chan, in a statement to the Chronicle. "We’re going through this budget to prioritize people being housed, people being fed and cared for."
Chan added in her statement that she and Lurie did not always "see eye to eye," but they both agree that they should avoid cutting budgets relating to street cleaning and public safety, which both remain high priorities.
City leaders remain concerned that the city will burn through its reserves while accounting for losses in federal funding amid the general stampede of cuts by President Trump.
Lurie gave a statement to the Chronicle saying, "I promised San Franciscans accountable leadership in City Hall, and I am accountable for delivering a budget that tackles our structural deficit and puts our city on track for a strong recovery. Even facing significant uncertainty at the state and federal levels, we are building a budget that will drive San Francisco’s comeback."
As the Chronicle notes, the last mayor to have slash jobs widely at City Hall during a time of economic uncertainty was Gavin Newsom, who slashed over 1,600 city jobs in his 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 budgets. These layoff numbers appear, for now, far less severe.
Earlier this week, Lurie announced that he would be sparing the budgets of the police and fire departments, as well as the District Attorney's Office and Public Defender's Office, in order to prioritize public safety above all.
Photo: Mazin Omron
