STOCKTON - City Hall will issue layoff notices today to about 55 police officers and 35 civilian employees to shed costs, officials said Thursday, after Stockton and its police union ended labor talks without a deal.
Also, seven of the Police Department's 53 sergeants are to be demoted to the rank of officer, City Manager Gordon Palmer said in a meeting with The Record's editorial board.
The layoffs - the exact number of which remained uncertain, as some employees are expected to retire - are to be effective June 30. The notices have for months been expected, accompanied by unprecedented service reductions in Stockton's bid to balance its $31 million budget deficit.
"We're not trimming dead wood anymore," Vice Mayor Kathy Miller said. "We're lopping off big branches."
To reduce the Police Department's number from about 400 officers to 345 is expected to greatly reduce community policing, in which officers are put on routine assignment in some of Stockton's most dangerous areas. The police layoffs number 12 more than Palmer once planned and were expected to save almost $6 million annually, about $500,000 less than the city sought in concessions from the Stockton Police Officers Association.
Beyond the Police Department, the City Council is likely when it adopts its fiscal 2009-10 budget to cancel tree trimming and fireworks on the Fourth of July and to close or reduce hours at some facilities.
Mayor Ann Johnston said, "We've never been through this kind of a situation before."
Further reductions are almost certain. Palmer said layoffs ordered today and spending reductions called for previously would reduce the budget deficit by about $20 million. Of the remaining deficit, he has proposed that $9.3 million come from concessions from the city's fire union.
Fire Capt. Dave Macedo, the union president, said again Thursday - as he has for at least a month - that his union will concede no more than it did in December, when it deferred some $10 million in pay in return for the city's promise it would not lay off firefighters or close stations.
Macedo said Palmer has since proposed closing some stations and that the union would litigate to block any station closure or the layoff of any firefighter.
"They're taking advantage of a weak economy to go after labor contracts," Macedo said.
Palmer said the city and the union are to meet again. He said he must know by next week if concessions can be had.
"I suspect it will be difficult," he said.
Palmer has said a general fund dominated by police and fire spending cannot be fixed without significant reductions in those areas. He declined to say Thursday if he will order firefighters laid off if no accord is reached.
"We'll look at all our options," he said.
In the failed police talks, the administration and the Stockton Police Officers Association have for months feuded about how much of a raise officers are owed in addition to a 9.5 percent increase authorized last year.
At the Police Department, "morale is kind of split," interim Police Chief Blair Ulring said. He said many young officers feel they have little voice in the union and that the union does not have their best interest in mind. He said many older officers feel the union is justifiably seeking what it believes its officers are owed.
Officer Steve Leonesio, the union president, said Ulring's assessment is inaccurate and that the union's position has great support.
"I think he's out of touch with that," Leonesio said. "I think we're the strongest we've been."
Palmer said he expects the number of police layoffs ordered today to be reduced by officers taking a retirement incentive the council authorized Tuesday. Thirteen sworn officers and 18 civilian police employees had by Thursday applied for the incentive, Ulring said. The city is to pay two years' additional service credit into the California Public Employees' Retirement System for officers who are at least 50.
