Mesa plans cuts to deal with $33-million shortfall

Mesa is planning budget cuts to deal with a $33-million budet shortfall this year, including eliminating nearly 350 jobs and reducing after-school programs for kids.

City Manager Chris Brady presented the bleak picture to the City Council on Thursday, saying that "dramatic and historic shortfalls" force the city to recommend new approaches for services and scale back many of the current programs.

In addition to the $33 million shortfall this fiscal year, Brady said the forecast is for an additional $28.8 million reduction in availalbe resources for fiscal 2009-2010.

Plans would eliminate some 35 Fire Department jobs through attrition, but Fire Chief Harry Beck has a plan to keep the same number of firefighters on the streets.

"We are going to move three chiefs and five captains and an engineer back to the firefighting ranks from staff support positions which have been unfilled to this point and then they're going to be able to work in the field," Beck said.

He said he will rearrange personnel to maintain adequte response times.

"The community is still growing, even at a time when the budgets are being cut, and so we are concerned about being able to keep up with the growth, but in terms of maintaining response capability," Beck said. "It's really not going to have a huge impact on the community."

He said his department will cut several million dollars in overtime costs.

"We will be, in a sense, in a little more difficult position, in terms of whether or not we would need additional people on emergencies to be there with us at the outset, so we're going to be calling them in a little later in the process," he said. "But, we believe we can stabilize situations with the staff that will be able to respond."

The council will decide next month whether to accept a plan that would cut as many as 389 jobs.

While about 25 percent of those positions are vacant, scores of city employees have been told over the past few days they'll be out of work as of Jan. 9.

Those remaining, including the City Council and top administrators, will take a 2 percent pay cut.

Total budget reductions for the police department will be 8.2 percent, and for fire, 7.5 percent.

Cuts outlined by Brady could leave more than 2,600 children without after-school programs. Many programs will be eliminated or reduced; those that remain will be consolidated at four city recreation centers -- Webster, Jefferson, Red Mountain and Washington.

"We're essentially bringing all those programs back into the city's facilities," Brady said. "There's four of those. Obviously, because of that capacity, it will limit the number of activities or programs after school that we will be able to provide."

"Julie," one young mother who lives in the Crismon School neighborhood near Baseline and Alma School, is disappointed. She was counting on after-school programs for her daughter.

"I'm really excited to have Skyler join after-school programs when she gets to be that age, which is coming up pretty soon," she said.

Other people called the cutbacks in after-shool programs "terrible."

The city also is considering doing away with many youth and adult sports leagues. (Copyright 2008 Bonneville International Corporation. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.)