City Council Struggles With Proposed Budget Cuts

SAN DIEGO -- Dozens of people pleaded with the San Diego City Council Wednesday not to shutter libraries and recreation centers as proposed by Mayor Jerry Sanders to help close a $43 million mid-year spending gap.

"Keep our neighborhood libraries alive," Vicki Church, with the Friends of the San Diego Public Library, told the council.

The City Council did not take any action today on the mayor's proposed cuts. A third hearing on the plan will be held Monday at 1 p.m. to give council members a chance to deliberate.

Sanders' plan to close the budget shortfall includes suspending operations at seven libraries, nine recreation centers and six customer service centers throughout San Diego.

Four of seven deputy chief operating officers would lose their jobs and the number of civilians in the San Diego Police Department's administrative staff would be cut, as would community service officers.

The number of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department companies active on any given day would decrease from 60 to 58.

Sanders is asking for 10 percent budget cuts in the staff of the city clerk and from each of the eight City Council district offices. His own office would absorb a 15 percent budget cut.

His proposal would also reduce the number of recruits at police academies and slash the city's junior lifeguard program.

At the start of Wednesday's meeting, Sanders called for "immediate action."

"All of us are pained by the realization that we must close some libraries and recreation centers to get through this difficult time," Sanders said. "Once we have come to that realization, what's the purpose of prolonging the agony?" he asked. "What's the purpose of delaying a decision when it buys us a few months and costs us millions of dollars?"

The mayor's remarks were in response to a recommendation made by the city's Independent Budget Analyst Andrea Tevlin to defer closing libraries and recreation centers for three to six months while a plan is drafted that would evaluate facilities under construction or planned.

"The council should be informed of other options considered to avoid closures," Tevlin told the City Council.

Sanders said the spending shortfall will grow by $350,000 for every week that the City Council doesn't act.

Dozens of people packed the Council Chamber for today's three-hour hearing to speak out against the mayor's proposed cuts.

Wilbur Smith, a member of the city's Park and Recreation Board, said parks cannot sustain more cuts.

"I know we face difficult times, but year after year it seems that park and recreation and libraries are the sacrificial lamb," he said.

Frank DeClercq, president of San Diego City Firefighters Local 145, testified that cutting engine companies would further erode response times.

"Putting the public at risk is not the answer," he said.

Sanders hopes to enact the cuts by Jan. 1.