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| City workers propose cuts By Mark Noack [ mark@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 4:41 PM PST Half Moon Bay employees are offering concessions to city leaders taking up the ax to make ends meet in the city budget. In exchange, city workers say they don’t want to be shut out of the budget negotiations. Employees represented by two of the city unions delivered a set of budget proposals to City Council members Tuesday. They say the proposals would close a $2.1 million deficit. At the top of the list, the employee proposal offers a 10-percent salary cut by taking unpaid furlough days through the next fiscal year. They report these cuts would save around $800,000. In exchange, the city labor unions are requesting that council members levy a set of cuts to the city administration and contractors. Those proposals include eliminating contracted employees for human resources, code enforcement and other unspecified city services. Half Moon Bay went through a similar process last year when city leaders had to make about $1.75 million in budget reductions. Council members approved a plan to scale back City Hall, cutting approximately one third of the public workforce and reorganizing the city. Those cutbacks focused on hiring contracted services to replace full-time employees. Council members said they would take any ideas from city staff for balancing the budget under consideration. Councilman Rick Kowalczyk said the employee suggestions would be acknowledged, but the council members would have to weigh the cuts for themselves. “There’s no sacred cows in this process. We’re well underway into looking into the budget, and we have to look across the board,” he said. “Everything is getting touched – there’s nothing protected.” |