by Juliana Birnbaum Fox
The Mayor’s Office announced the elimination of 301 city government positions this week, most of them currently vacant, saving San Francisco an estimated $29 million in the coming year. Of the positions eliminated, over 200 are from Laguna Honda Hospital, where population numbers are down.
“We are facing some of the toughest decisions we have to make in order to balance the $338 million budget defi cit,” said Mayor Newsom. “These cuts donot mean a reduction in city services. But make no mistake, we will have to propose additional position reductions in the budget and these will result in layoffs in the coming months.”
New city legislation would cap overtime pay
The Mayor’s Office also submitted legislation this past week to the Board of Supervisors that limits the amount of overtime an employee can work throughout the year and limits the totalnumber of hours an employee can work in a single week.
The law affects all City and County of San Francisco employees except uniformed Fire and Police Department workers, but provides general exceptions for emergency or critical service needs. Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, Chair of the Board of Supervisors Budget Committee, is cosponsoring the legislation.
“This legislation addresses the fiscal impacts of overtime overuse and supports national standards for work hours that promote safety and accountability,” said Mayor Newsom. “We are facing a $338 million deficit. Restricting excess overtime to critical service needs is just common sense.”
Recycling plastic made easier
Beginning April 22, Earth Day, SF recycling companies will accept all hard plastic, including plastic cups, containers, and toys in blue carts, and the days of trying to remember which numbers are OK to recycle will be over.
Residents and businesses will be encouraged to recycle all plastic tubs and lids, yogurt and clamshell containers (clean, without food or liquids), cups, buckets, plant containers, and other non-fi lm plastics.
As long as an item is made only of rigid plastic – not a plastic bag or other fi lm plastic – it can go into in the blue recycling cart. Plastic toys will be accepted as long as they have no metal parts, batteries, circuit boards or wiring.
Upgrading the blue cart program to accept more plastics is part of ongoing efforts by the city’s recycling companies to help San Francisco divert 75 percent of resources away from landfill disposal by 2010 and to help achieve what the City calls “zero waste” by 2020.
Newsom dedicates city’s Community Health and Wellness Center San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom presided over ceremonies last night at City College of San Francisco to dedicate the College’s new Community Health and Wellness Center.
“We are indebted to the people of San Francisco for overwhelmingly supporting our recent bond measures to allow City College to build this state-of-the art Health and Wellness Center,” said Board President Lawrence Wong. “One out of every seven San Franciscans attend City College of San Francisco. As the Board of Trustees we are proud to carry out the wishes of San Franciscans in creating an environment that is conducive to learning and good health for generations of our students far into this 21st century.”
