West to announce service cutbacks

Spokane Mayor Jim West is expected to announce a series of cuts in general city services during a meeting of the City Council tonight.

Staffing reductions and the possibility of layoffs are anticipated. The cuts are likely to affect the city’s largest general fund departments, including police, fire, streets, libraries and parks.

West and other top officials hope that a newly completed prioritization of city services, undertaken ahead of today’s announcement, will blunt the overall impact of the cuts on city residents.

West was scheduled to update the council on his budget-cutting efforts during the council’s 6 p.m. legislative session in Council Chambers. The meeting will be broadcast live in Spokane on cable channel 5.

“At a minimum, he will identify some of the cuts he’s going to make,” said Marlene Feist, public affairs officer for the city.

Sluggish tax collections and higher employee costs are among the reasons the city is facing a budget shortfall this year. Also, the city started 2004 with less cash than officials had anticipated when the budget was drafted last fall.

The cuts are needed to achieve $6 million in savings from the city’s $121 million general fund budget for 2004. An additional 2 percent cut, or $2.4 million, may be needed at the start of 2005.

A month ago, the mayor launched a citywide effort to define priorities for services with the help of a St. Paul, Minn., consultant. Departments submitted “bids” for providing services to meet eight priorities: safety, health, environment, mobility, education, a strong economy, human services and government leadership.

The public was asked to submit its own lists of priorities, and those were reviewed by top officials during their prioritization work.

Leaders in the city’s four largest employee bargaining groups participated in the prioritization work.

The mayor and his chief officers spent much of last week huddled in a conference room ranking the bids against priorities.

In addition to asking city departments to bid for services, the mayor earlier ordered all departments not to fill vacancies as they arose in recent months. The order was applied to water, sewer and garbage utilities even though they are funded by rate charges, not taxes.

West said he hopes to use vacancies in utilities to absorb employees that might be facing layoffs in general tax fund departments. Civil Service employees are allowed to transfer among all city departments within their job classifications. The most widely used classifications include laborers and clerks.

The city has about 1,850 Civil Service employees in its budget. Of those, about 90 positions are vacant, including 30 in general fund departments, officials said.

Chief Civil Service Examiner Denny Desmarais said his office will be working with employees who are facing possible job losses. The first step will be to offer transfers by classification to other departments. Employees who are laid off will automatically go onto a list for rehiring when a new opening occurs.

“The whole focus of Civil Service is to get these people placed as quickly as possible and get them back in the work force, back in the workplace,” he said.

The city is required to provide notice of 10 working days in the case of layoffs.

City Council President Dennis Hession said the mayor does not need City Council approval to withhold spending in the current city budget. However, if West wants to make changes in various funds or departments, including combining government functions, he must obtain approval from the council through emergency budget ordinances as required by state law.

Hession said the council expects to receive requests for some budget changes. He said any of those changes will be open to public testimony. At least one and possibly two hearings would be held on budget changes, he said, and additional public testimony will be sought during development of the 2005 budget later this year.

Emergency budget action before the council is expected to occur during August to meet a Sept. 1 deadline for implementing reductions, Hession said.