San Bernardino city officials Tuesday night were weighing a dramatic austerity plan for the insolvent city that would close libraries, slash jobs and contract out some services to the private sector.
The plan would shave $22.4 million off the city's $45.8-million general fund budget deficit — equal to about 30% of the general fund budget. The city filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection last month, making it the third California city to do so this summer.
Interim City Manager Andrea Travis-Miller told the council the city had no choice but to make deep cuts. Officials also warned that as painful as this round of cuts would be, the city will need to slash much more to balance its books.
Financial Year
"We just don't have sufficient inflows to deal with the operating costs we have to even provide basic services," Travis-Miller said. "At this point, we are convinced that if we do not begin to make deep cuts to this organization, we really will not have the cash flow to sustain us very much longer."
Budget Deficit
The proposed budget plan would eliminate more than 100 jobs, including 41 non-sworn positions in the Police Department and a variety of positions in other departments ranging from managers to janitors.
Twenty positions were slated to be cut from the Fire Department, triggering nine demotions but no layoffs, and 18 sworn police positions were expected to be eliminated through retirements and resignations.
The plan called for consolidating a number of departments and contracting out functions including custodial services and park and tree maintenance to private vendors.
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