Twelve City Employees Receive Notice of Tentative Layoffs

Twelve city employees received notices last week that they may be losing their jobs as early as June, as the city of Petaluma tries to reconcile a $4 million budget deficit before heading into next fiscal year July 1.

The people who received tentative layoff notices include seven City Hall employees represented by AFSCME, three police officers and two mid- management level employees, according to sources who spoke on background, due to the delicate nature of the issue.

Meanwhile, Randy Chism, treasurer of Petaluma Firefighters Local 1415, which represents 40 firefighters, said he was concerned that City Manager John Brown appeared to be meeting informally with various union groups instead of engaging in full fledged union negotiations.

“We have not officially met and conferred with the city on the budget,” Chism said Monday. “We would more than welcome contract talks.”

He added that the union is willing to make concessions, including having as many of seven firefighters retire early, which would save the city $200,000 because it would hire new firefighters at a lower salary.

“I believe we have come forward with a large concession package than would more satisfy the city,” Chism said, adding that he wanted to "confirm the accuracy of the numbers the city is presenting."

Brown denied that he was avoiding meeting with city unions to conduct formal talks.

“We are currently meeting on an informal basis,” Brown said. “Our next set of meetings with some or all of these groups will be meet and confer sessions. (The) dates have not been set, but will be.”

The city is facing a budget deficit of $4 million going into next year and hopes to balance the books through layoffs, reduced hours, increased employee contributions to pensions and healthcare or some combination of all three.

Mayor Dave Glass stressed that the layoff notices delivered last week are required by collective bargaining and are not “set in stone.”

“Just because someone got a notice, doesn’t mean they’re headed out the door,” Glass said. “It just means they are vulnerable.”

He added that the city was running out of options to reduce employee expenses, which includes about $1.1 million in fire department overtime. He also said that the city would not know the full extent of lay offs until it knew how many employees would accept an early retirement package, known as golden handshakes. It would allow workers to accrue two additional years of work credit.

"What is out there is an effort to do this in the most benevolent way possible,” Glass said.