As many as 50 city jobs may be budget victims

The first hint of the job cuts came in an e-mail to firefighters from acting Chief Doug Schrage Monday. But Mayor Dan Sullivan said other departments also will lose jobs as the city closes a new $9 million deficit in this year's budget.

"Bottom line is, it's system-wide and it affects virtually every department in one form or another," Sullivan said.

Schrage's e-mail, obtained from one of the 400-some fire department employees who received it, informs them in general terms that job cuts are coming.

"Unfortunately now, despite my best efforts, significant cuts cannot be avoided and layoffs are certain to occur," the e-mail says.

In an interview Monday night, Schrage would not discuss specific positions or types of jobs that will be affected.

"My message was intended to be a courtesy 'heads-up' to all the employees to let them know cuts were forthcoming and that I would be meeting individually with those who were affected personally," he said.

"I will say that it affects multiple areas of the department and multiple levels within, some high-ranking, some mid-ranking and some lower ranking."

The acting chief said he's not happy about the cuts, but couldn't avoid them. The department was asked to absorb just under $1 million of the deficit.

"I am not at all comfortable with the prospect of reducing the scope or the size of our department, but it is the reality that we have," Schrage said. "There is only so much money available to us."

Schrage said he's confident the department will still perform at a high level. "The professional firefighters and paramedics we have, and the support staff, are very capable of picking up the slack," he said.

Fire Capt. Tom Wescott, head of the local firefighters' union, said the layoffs in the department will affect both union and non-union employees. He wasn't immediately sure how many positions are involved, but estimated it's between 12 and 15.

Included are three battalion chiefs and three chief safety officers, Wescott said.

"What a giant step backward," he said.

Wescott said both the battalion chiefs and the safety officers are important fire-fighting jobs. The battalion chief is incident commander at major fires. The safety officers' job is to watch out for hazards at fires -- "pitfalls that firefighters can run into and get injured," he said.

The city's current budget problems first surfaced when then-acting Mayor Matt Claman announced a $17 million deficit soon after he took over for departing Mayor Mark Begich in January. Claman and the Assembly made initial cuts to close that gap earlier this year.

Then, shortly after he was sworn in on July 1, Sullivan and his new budget executives said anticipated shortfalls in tourism-related taxes, fees, and continued declines in investment returns were producing another $9 million deficit.

"All the easy lifting was done in the first round of cuts," Sullivan said Monday night. "And the second round, it cuts deeper."

Sullivan wouldn't discuss specific jobs that will be lost, saying he wanted to make sure employees learn about them first from the city. He said he thought the layoffs, throughout the city, will affect somewhere around 45 to 50 employees.

The city's workforce is about 3,000 employees.

Sullivan said he is trying to reduce the budget where possible by finding new, more efficient ways to provide services.

"Unfortunately, the problem is so big it means cuts in personnel and quite frankly next year is going to be equally as dramatic."

Sullivan says five-year union contracts approved by the Begich administration and the Assembly late last year will cause city expenses to swell for the next several years.

Most city unions agreed to push back a wage increase scheduled for this year and to other cost-saving steps. But the mayor said expenses will rise steeply in the outer years of those contracts. Unions might be able to avoid layoffs by giving back additional wage increases, he said.

Schrage, the acting fire chief, has personal experience with layoffs. In 1989, he was one of 23 fire employees who lost jobs during a round of budget cuts by former Mayor Tom Fink. He was later rehired when another position came open.

"It's heartbreaking," he said Monday night.

"The reason it's tough -- this will sound like a cliche, but the fire department family is very genuine and very different from other employment settings," Schrage said. "We don't view each other as co-workers, but as partners in a dangerous mission ...

"People take it really hard. I took it really hard."