The Tucson City Council would like a helping of fewer vacant jobs, with a side of lower spending on overtime pay — hold the swimming pool closures.
Those were a few of the selections the council made from a menu of budget-cut options City Manager Michael Ortega has served to help fill a $25 million budget gap.
His recommended budget is due to the council on April 19 for the new fiscal year beginning July 1 — and he wants it to be a balanced budget.
The discussion was organized as a series of decisions about whether to keep certain types of cuts “on the table” or to hold certain programs harmless.
In about six hours of budget talks spread over two days, the council gave the OK for about $18 million in cuts.
The biggest was a proposal to save $11 million by eliminating 134 vacant police department jobs. Chief Chris Magnus told the council the reality is those jobs have been vacant for a long time.
Another big one was to save $3.1 million by cutting down on overtime pay at the fire department.
But the council asked the city manager to take a second look and maybe find different options for the fire department, parks department and transit budget cuts.
Fire Chief Jim Critchley had proposed eliminating Rescue Truck 10 from a fire station at Park Avenue and Ajo Way, with response times staying about the same because other fire crews could respond to the calls .
That would save $682,000.
“One of the things we really didn’t like was a rescue truck being eliminated” from the fire department budget, said Council Member Shirley Scott. “That just didn’t compute and I think that probably would have a negative effect on delivery of service.”
Council Member Steve Kozachik warned the chief must “own the answer” to the question of whether the cut would hurt public safety.
“We don’t balance our budget on the backs of people’s lives,” he said.
Council Member Richard Fimbres didn’t like the look of some of the proposed transit budget cuts.
A proposal to change the frequency of bus stops on Route 18 (Sixth Avenue) from 10 minutes to 15 minutes on weekdays to save $240,605 riled him up.
“Route 18 is the No. 1 route for passengers per hour, the No. 1 route for passengers per mile, it generates the second most revenue per mile — and we’re going to be messing with this?” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild found other changes to the transit budget to be “a no-brainer.”
Those include eliminating paper transfer cards used to switch buses and cutting back on late-night Thursday hours for the streetcar.
The council members took swimming pool closures and cuts to Kidco after-school programs off the table, protecting them from budget cuts for another year.
The council will review the manager’s recommended budget on April 19 and a public hearing on the budget is scheduled for May 3.
