Money Monday: City, county budget speeches; worker warnings

September 27, 2010 8:37 am
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 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle parks

Both Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine are scheduled to announce their proposed budgets today, and neither is expected to make anybody happy. Constantine’s budget address is scheduled for 10:30 am (KCTV will run it live); McGinn’s is set for noon at the Rainier Beach Community Center, and it’ll be streamed by Seattle Channel (link to come). Their respective proposals won’t be the final word – hearings, discussions, proposals and counterproposals will ensue, but we know that at least one group of employees will get the word in advance about whether their jobs are likely to stay or go: Seattle Parks staffers have meetings set this morning with Acting Superintendent Christopher Williams, starting at 9 am, according to a memo shared with us by a source. (Acting Deputy Superintendent Eric Friedli had told the Parks Board earlier this month that managers planned to brief workers on potential budget impacts before the news went public.)

According to the memo, Parks staffers are meeting in six separate groups – Recreation/Aquatics, Resources/Shops, Planning/Development, Seattle Conservation Corps, Finance/Administrative, Seattle Aquarium. A separate memo from Williams says that Parks workers will each get a letter at their meeting, saying whether their job isn’t affected by the proposed budget, is “proposed for abrogation,” is “not impacted … but (the worker) may be at risk of layoff due to another employee’s bumping rights,” or “(worker’s) position is proposed to have a reduction in hours.” Williams wrote in that same memo, “It appears the Mayor’s proposed budget will impact us department-wide.” What this means for Parks users – and what other proposed cuts might mean for you – we’ll find out officially at noon; we’ll also report any information that comes out beforehand. Back to the county cuts: Many of those are likely to affect city residents as well, particularly in services the county provides, such as criminal justice; we’ll bring you that information as soon as it’s available, too. For both budgets, public hearings are coming up to provide you a chance to speak out: The city has three community meetings, all listed here, including one in West Seattle – 5:30 pm October 13th at South Seattle Community College; for the county, the first of four public hearings (listed here) is the closest, council chambers downtown at 6:30 this Wednesday night.

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