The city promises to do something with its latest study on pay and job titles
The city is looking to furlough municipal employees to make up an expected $18 million shortfall in the city budget by the end of the fiscal year in June.
Law enforcement are some of the few employees who will not see a cut in their hours and salaries.
Santa Fe's plan leaves "the police department uniformed personnel completely untouched by any kind of furlough because public safety is our highest priority," Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber said in a virtual update to the press on Monday.
The Santa Fe City Council expects to vote on a resolution regarding employee furloughs on Wednesday. The meeting will be streamed live at 5 pm on the city's YouTube page. Public comments on any item on the agenda must be submitted by 1 pm.
The city sent notices to impacted city employees on April 21 announcing the furloughs are scheduled to begin on May 6 pending councilors' approval.
The resolution would allow departments to cut employee hours by up to four hours a week for some and up to 16 hours a week for others, depending on the nature of the job.
On Monday, Webber said employees who will experience the most drastic reduction in hours and salary will be those working in areas of city government that are deemed non-essential or where facilities are closed.
The mayor listed municipal recreation centers, parking garages and libraries as examples of city services that are currently closed due to COVID-19 and are unlikely to open back up to the public any time soon.
The city will also reduce the hours of most other city employees by four hours a week.
"That includes the department heads, that includes the management folks," said the mayor, adding this strategy was implemented by the city during the 2008 financial crisis and was recommended to the mayor by the local branch of the public employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The decision to furlough city employees is part of a broader strategy to make up an estimated $46 million in lost GRT revenues by the end of the fiscal year.
At a Finance Committee meeting last week, city staff discussed other tactics that include a spending freeze, a hiring freeze on all non-essential employees and layoffs of all non-essential temporary employees. Yet these measures only add up to about $28 million.
The city hopes to save up to $900,000 by increasing deductibles and co-pays on health insurance plans, and is looking to liquidate real estate assets. What Webber called "the city's rainy day fund," currently stands at $14 million and could provide an additional $5 million. The city is required to maintain a $9 million balance in reserve.
A plea for state and federal aid could also help make up the $18 million difference. As a city with a population of under 500,000, Santa Fe is not eligible for federal aid under the bills recently passed in Washington. Webber has joined the mayors of other small cities in pressing the federal government for further aid.
But none of these measures will be enough without furloughs.
"It hurts to furlough people, it hurts to stop delivering the services to the people of Santa Fe… We are going through a painful moment and the goal is to go through it as quickly and with as little suffering as possible," said the mayor, "but where there has to be some pain, to make the sacrifice a shared sacrifice."
