City budget plan: 30 layoffs, 1-week closure for libraries

The city of Seattle plans to close its libraries for a week during the summer and lay off 30 city workers because of a midyear budget shortfall, Mayor Greg Nickels announced Friday.

Nickels announced his plans to cut $13.3 million out of the 2009 general-fund budget and said he will spend $5 million of the city's rainy-day fund to close a budget gap caused by lower-than-expected tax revenue.

In all, the city is cutting 59 positions in July, but only about half are filled. Those 30 employees learned Friday their jobs are in danger. About 100 other employees will take an unpaid week off this year, and executives with the city will take pay cuts. The mayor himself said he wrote the city a check for about $5,000, returning the cost-of-living raise he got this year.

"It's no secret that we are in the worst economic crisis in decades here in Seattle," Nickels said during a news conference.

Nickels said he will make no cuts to direct human services or to police officers. The cuts the mayor announced Friday, along with money left over from 2008, will cover this year's $29.5 million shortfall.

Most city departments will take between a 1 and 3 percent cut. Some will delay purchases of computer equipment. Others will reduce expenses for travel, interns, postage, office supplies. The mayor plans to cut $400,000 he set aside for public toilets when the city's automated public toilets were declared a failure and removed from downtown. He will close the Atlantic Street Nursery, which provides plants for parks, and cut some parks maintenance.

The Seattle Public Library initially proposed shorter branch hours, but the mayor reinstated $500,000 to its budget to allow it to keep its regular hours and avoid layoffs. The library employees' union has not negotiated the details of the one-week closure, but Seattle Public Library spokeswoman Andra Addison said it probably will be the last week of August.

A group of city employees is planning an "informational picket" outside City Hall on Monday morning from 7 to 8:30 a.m. to protest the mayor's cuts. Linda Averill of Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity said the city should cut more deeply from executive salaries and consider tax reform to avoid affecting front-line employees. She said it's not enough to avoid cuts to human services, and that in hard times the city should increase spending.

"When you look at the picture overall, it's pretty grim. So even if they cut one whatever percent, what they need to be doing is actually boosting spending," she said.

Nickels will brief the City Council on Monday about the cuts, and some members of his staff will attend a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall. No vote is necessary, and Nickels will make his final cuts by May 1.

The city's budget cuts won't be over then. Budget director Dwight Dively projects the city will be about $40 million short in 2010. There is still $25 million in the rainy-day fund to help close that gap.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com