Talks between CSEA and city fail

The City Council voted 3-2 at Tuesday’s budget hearing to adopt the $87.9 million budget for 2012-13, but not before Civil Service Employees Association workers who were laid off earlier this week and their supporters blasted city officials, saying that the union is bearing the brunt of layoffs as the city contends with a $10.2 million deficit.

Last week, City Manager Jack Schnirman said that the city needs to come up with $7 million in personnel savings to balance the budget.

Schnirman said that layoffs of 20 full-time CSEA employees and five firefighters hired last year are unavoidable because the previous administration did not budget for those positions, saying that the cuts would save the city $2.5 million annually beginning in fiscal 2012-13.

“If the city does not balance the budget … Moody’s Investors Service will remind us that we’re under a negative watch,” Schnirman said, “... and we’ll immediately be downgraded to junk bond status, and lose the ability to go to market to borrow, which we need to do to meet our payroll.”

Schnirman also said the city would be in jeopardy of coming under a state control board. The city is also cutting 42 part-time employees and removing 69 “inactive” part-time workers from the payroll. The layoffs affect a number of departments, he said, including public works, sanitation and beach maintenance.

The spending plan initially came with a 4.1 percent tax levy increase and an 11.9 percent deficit-reduction “surcharge,” which city officials said would have raised taxes next year by roughly $430 to $2,900 on an average home in Long Beach.

However, Schnirman said on Tuesday that the budget now incorporates a reduction of that surcharge by more than half, saying that state legislation would allow the city to spread the payments out over 10 years.

“That means a 5.3 percent deficit reduction surcharge … and now a 2.6 percent general fund tax levy increase,” Schnirman said.

Schriman said that the city also moved forward with the layoffs of five paid firefighters who were hired last year, along with two demotions.