Local 39, Sacramento’s biggest union, protests outside City Hall in 2019. Their members do jobs for the city like picking up trash, answering 311 calls, maintaining streets, enforcing code violations and keeping parks clean and well maintained.
Paul Kitagaki Jr.
pkitagaki@sacbee.com
The city of Sacramento this week notified a union — representing workers from nearly every department — that it may lay off some of its members amid an approximate $66 million budget deficit.
City Hall’s expenses far surpassed its revenues for the past two years. The Council was able to avoid layoffs, balancing its billion dollar budgets by slashing vacant positions and hiking fees for parking and other programs, in those years. But those solutions appear to be at an end.
The International Union of Operating Engineers, Stationary Engineers Local 39 received a letter Monday titled “formal notice of proposed layoffs and opportunity to meet and confer regarding impacts” as the city contemplates cost-saving measures. Local 39 represents people in many departments, with roles such as code and parking enforcement, park maintenance, water treatment plant operations and urban forestry.
The letter outlined how the city’s budget proposal, scheduled to be released Thursday, could include a preliminary recommendation of layoffs. A department restructuring could also lead to “alternative service delivery models” such as replacing workers with contractors, the letter said.
Payden Martin, a union representative for Local 39, said it was disappointing that officials are considering cutting some of the city’s lowest paid employees, such as parks maintenance workers.
“Trying to balance budget on the backs of lowest paid employees seems to me to be a morally reprehensible choice for budget priorities,” Martin said.
City spokesperson Jennifer Singer did not immediately have a comment.
The city’s Finance Director Pete Coletto for the upcoming fiscal year projected a $66 million budget deficit, a figure which doesn’t include state funding for homelessness. City Manager Maraskeshia Smith did not rule out employee layoffs during an interview earlier this year.
Cuts to city employees should alarm all residents and will cause repercussions for the community, Martin said. Property values could plunge if enough park maintenance workers cannot clean public spaces. The cuts hurt workers, some of whom worked decades with the city, and their families, he said.
“Something needs to be done to save our parks,” he said.
Elected officials are scheduled to hear proposed department cost-cutting plans in March. Each department has been asked to reduce spending by 15%.
On Tuesday, the city’s Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment, Finance and Community Response departments will present their methods, according to the letter.
“We are early in the budget process,” the letter said. “The information being presented is subject to change.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2026 at 6:10 PM.
Related Stories from Sacramento Bee
The Sacramento Bee
Ishani Desai is a government watchdog reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered crime and courts for The Bakersfield Californian.