Feedback from Library Employees
To Library Employees;
As many of you may know, the Mayor is proposing additional budget cuts in a mid-year process which includes a proposal for an 18-month budget that covers the remainder of FY 2010 and all of FY 2011. Last month, all general fund department heads were instructed by the Mayor’s Office to propose budget cuts totaling 27%. This is obviously a very significant cut, especially for the Library since you have had to endure so many drastic cuts over the past several years. After looking at every possible cut, the Library Director came up with a proposal which was submitted to the Mayor.
Instead of submitting a budget proposal to the City Council that included the entire 27% cut, the Mayor found various “one time,” non-personal budget solutions to reduce the impact on personnel and services. Initially, his proposal included the “pairing” of 16 branches and a reduction of 41.26 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) positions. The pairing of branches would create a 36-hour, Tuesday through Saturday schedule, reducing the number of open days from six per week to five days per week. Some of the other cuts proposed were the elimination of eight FTE positions in the Technical Services Section and 4 FTE positions in other sections for a total of 53.26 FTE positions. Of those positions, 29.26 were vacant, which meant 24 filled positions would be eliminated affecting the employees who filled them. However, after further discussions with various stakeholders including MEA, the Mayor and the Library Department came up with an alternative which would keep the branches open more days per week.
The most recent proposal made by the Library was to keep all branches open five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday. This would change the schedule of hours to a fixed schedule. The fixed schedule would be as follows:
Branches:
Sunday – *Closed
Monday- Closed
Tuesday – 11:00am to 8:00pm
Wednesday- 11:00am to 8:00pm
Thursday- 8:30am to 5:30pm
Friday- 8:30am to 5:30pm
Saturday- 8:30am to 2:30pm
*3 branches would remain open on Sundays because of special donations. The Sunday hours at these branches would be staffed by ½ time and hourly employees.
Central Library:
Sunday- *12:30pm to 5:00pm
Monday- 11:00am to 8:00pm
Tuesday- 8:30am to 5:30pm
Wednesday- 11:00am to 8:00pm
Thursday- 8:30am to 5:30pm
Friday- 8:30am to 5:30pm
Saturday- Closed
*Sunday hours would be staffed by ½ time and hourly employees.
The above proposal reduces the number of affected filled position from 24 FTE to 7 FTE. Of these 7 FTE proposed to be cut, 3 of the affected employees can transfer into vacant positions in the same classification, which means we would have to find homes in other classifications for only 4 employees. Although we do not like to see any City employee affected by these budget cuts, this is a huge improvement from the 24 FTE employees that would have been affected in the Mayor’s first proposal.
Please keep in mind that this is just a proposal and has not been approved by the Council. We are sending this information to you for your feedback on the proposed schedule changes as we currently are in the meet and confer process regarding the Mayor’s decision to forward this proposal to City Council. Because of the very short time line involved in this budget process, your immediate response and feedback will be greatly appreciated.
City Council is meeting tomorrow to hear further testimony and is scheduled to make its final decision on the 14th.
Please email your responses to Bballa@sdmea.org