Sacramento to Avoid Staffing Cuts as It Tackles $62M Deficit

(TNS) — Sacramento will not lay off any city employees to balance its multimillion-dollar budget deficit, according to an email sent Thursday afternoon to the City Council.

The announcement comes days before the council is expected to adopt the finalized version of its spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The budget, which addresses a $62 million shortfall, includes fee increases and the elimination of vacant positions across departments.

Interim City Manager Leyne Milstein had proposed nearly 13 layoffs in the first version of the $1.67 billion budget released in late April. Last month, Finance Director Pete Coletto said that number had been reduced to seven following some retirements and promotions.

On Thursday, Coletto wrote an email to the council informing them that the city would not lay off anyone. Sacramento has roughly 4,985 full-time city positions, according to its most recent proposed budget.

“I am happy to report that Human Resources and city departments have found alternative positions to place each of those employees,” Coletto wrote.

The city did not provide the specifics of the position changes, citing privacy for employees.

This would have been the first year Sacramento used layoffs to balance its budget since 2013, when the city was near the end of dealing with the Great Recession — a severe nationwide economic downturn. The recession led the city to eliminate nearly 1,300 full-time positions from 2008 to 2013, according to previous Bee reporting.

“It was hard, and I have said that I never want to be in that place again where I have to look across the table and tell somebody that they’re being laid off,” said Milstein, the city’s former finance director, in April.

The City Council will vote on the budget during its 5 p.m. meeting on Tuesday.

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